There are people that think their work career is like a life imprisonment and getting a pension is like a pardon from it. Even if they could enjoy their job, they refuse to do so. After all, it is not the job's purpose to be fun, its purpose is to provide money for your free time, right? So that in free time you could have hobbies, and hobbies are the ones that on the contrary to work, cost money and give pleasure. There is a clear line, isn't there.
Why is this? There is a voice in our head that commands us to move forward. The position you are currently in is not good enough for you. You must try harder. You should aim higher. Try harder. You will be a
millionaire, or more. Only so few of us will. But if you do, the voice will not stop. And the inner voice comes from our culture of valuing money and power, and is fed by TV, movies, commercials and so on.
The above applies to the western world.
The traditional eastern culture is very different. In fact it is pretty much the opposite of what is being taught in the west. It teaches you to satisfy to your position, and be happy of what has been given. It has always been like this, and the social class system has supported this culture. All your neighbours work as hard as you do, and are pretty much as wealthy as you are. Those that belong to a higher social class (meaning richer than you are), seem from another planet, and are strictly separated. So there is nothing to be jealous about, and nothing really to pursue, except of those little everyday moments of happiness, which are easy to accomplish.Even the village chief is automatically the oldest person, so you can not challenge him for gaining more power.
This was true until now. The class system has been ruined, the world is becoming more and more western. Those who happily ate rice all day long, watch TV and think that we really should be eating meat. Those that walked everywhere, want a car as the commercial says that everybody should have one.
What the economists call "global growth" is actually an increasing need of needless consumption. This can also be seen in the world population. it is needless to say that the end is not going to look nice.
