There are a couple of articles in the September issue of The Progressive magazine that I think are interesting to juxtapose. One is by John de Graf and it is about how working more doesn't necessarily translate—and in fact often does not translate—into happiness. The author advocates for people to reduce the amount of hours they work, so that they have more free time to pursue other activities, and also calls for employers to reduce employee hours, rather than terminate employees. There is a stub article posted on the website here.

In another article, Ruth Conliff writes about a new book by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett titled The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger. The book talks about inequality, for example how some CEOs pay is 400 times more than what the average employee is paid in the same company, and suggests that this inequality is a root cause of disease in individuals and in society. This article is not posted to the website (unless you subscribe,) so if you're not a subscriber, I recommend checking this one out at the library.

Here's a couple excerpts:

Living in a society with massive income inequality makes people anxious, depressed, even physically sick, according to British health researchers Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.

...and...

Brain research shows that cooperation and friendship stimulate the reward centers in the brain, while the experience of social exclusion involves the same areas of the brain as physical pain.

There are other interesting articles, including one by Jim Hightower about the "jobless recovery." I mean really, how does that make sense! It seems to me that the idea that the economy is recovering is a myth.

Berd