Rich Man's Burden

FOR many American professionals, the Labor Day holiday yesterday probably wasn't as relaxing as they had hoped. They didn't go into the office, but they were still working. As much as they may truly have wanted to focus on time with their children, their spouses or their friends, they were unable to turn off their Blackberry's, their laptops and their work-oriented brains....

For the rest of the article click http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/opinion/02conley.html?ref=opinionCommentary by Richard B. Wagner, JD, CFP®

Conley's article presents an intriguing thesis and an interesting twist on the phenomenon known as "the Protestant ethic." Max Weber observed a sense of religious duty among 19th century Protestants to work and be thrifty, not for worldly prosperity, but in order to gain "spiritual assurance that one is among the saved." This article notes that with today's workers, high income earners work more hours than lower income people. Once again, it is clear that income sufficiency is not the motive. Conley suggests that we work harder to get "less behind" those others who are "ahead" of us. Apparently, the drive to earn by working harder becomes amplified with the opportunity costs of "not earning" by working less appear to increase. These conclusions are reached in a study by behavioral economists Peter Kuhn and Fernando Lozano. Their abstract can be accessed at http://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/11895.html and the entire paper is available with a subscription or for a small fee.
Conley also looks at a study by Daniel Hamermesh and Jungmin Lee entitled "Stressed Out on Four Continents: Time Crunch or Yuppie Kvetch?" suggesting that higher earning women endure more stress than those earning less.
These conclusions fly in the face of commonly held beliefs that we work in order to access "the good life" or that "more money" equates to more happiness. As it happens, people have a hard time enjoying themselves.
It is fair to suggest that these professors ground in behavioral economics while leaning towards a politics of equality. That being said, it is fascinating to see the research showing such strong disconnects between money and happiness.
The article is worth a look, as are the abstracts available on the web.
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Dalton Conley is University Professor of the Social Sciences and Chair of Sociology at New York University . He also holds appointments at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service , as an Adjunct Professor of Community Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research ( NBER ). In 2005, Conley became the first sociologist to win the NSF's Alan T. Waterman Award. His research focuses on the determinants of economic opportunity within and across generations. In this vein, he studies sibling differences in socioeconomic success; racial inequalities; the salience of physical appearance to economic status; the measurement of class; and how health and biology affect (and are affected by) social position.
Peter Kuhn received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1983. Since then he has held faculty positions at the University of Western Ontario, McMaster University, and currently at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Since April 1998, he is a Research Fellow of IZA, Bonn. He has published papers on various aspects of labor economics, including unions, discrimination, immigration, displaced workers, unemployment insurance, and employment contract theory.
Fernando Antonio Lozano received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California Santa Barbara 2005. He is currently the Assistant Professor of Economics, Pomona College and is the National Poverty Center Postdoctoral Fellow, Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan 2008-2009.
Daniel S. Hamemesh is the Edward Everett Hale Centennial Professor of Economics
University of Texas at Austin - Department of Economics. He is associated with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in Cambridge, MA as well as the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany.
Jungmin Lee received his Ph.D. in Economics, the University of Texas at Austin, 2004. He is currently Assistant Professor, Florida International University in Miami, FL and Research Fellow, the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany.

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