Fighting Overwork and Time Poverty Term Paper

Instead, they only see the material things that they feel that they need. They are trained by society to want these materials objects, and they generally do not even understand why they feel this way. They only know that this is the way things are 'supposed to be.' While others who are not as materialistic try to tell them differently, and live with fewer possessions and more time, those who are working to make money to buy things continue in their vicious circle. It perpetuates itself by being passed on to their children, who also see only the material benefits of making a lot of money so that they can have the best homes, the most expensive cars, and all of the latest technological gadgetry that money can buy.

For many of these people, they do not realize until it is too late that there is much more to life than money, and that power and material things really do not make a person's life. Some never realize it at all. For those who realize it in time, though, the options for recreation and leisure are very abundant. There are so many activities that can be entered into with little to no money, and people who become aware of how much money they are spending and how much time they are working to afford things that they do not really need have the chance to change their lives and the lives of their families.

It seems as though what de Graff (2003) is really trying to say is that there is so much more to life than what money can buy, and more and more people are missing out on everything else that is offered to them, because they only see material gain as being important.This is putting a strain on certain facets of the recreation and leisure industry, and it is also keeping a lot of people from enjoying their vacations because they either really cannot afford to take them or they spend most of their time thinking about work. Only by learning to detach oneself from the monetary and material concerns of life to a certain degree can people really have any recreation or leisure time.

Naturally, money is important, since people need to survive. However, the technology that people are seeking after today and so many of the options that they have for bigger and better things materially have made people forget that there is more to life than money. These kinds of problems have also made people feel as though they are not valuable unless they have enough money, which is another serious concern. The real value in life, according to de Graff (2003) and many others, has nothing to do with how much a person earns. Instead, it has to do with actually living life and getting joy from the recreation and the leisure as well as work - something that most people cannot balance in today's society.

Bibliography de Graff, John. (2003). Take Back Your Time: Fighting Overwork and Time Poverty in….....