Adults wake up in the morning and go to work, laboring for several hours until their shift ends and they return home. This continues until the end of the week, where most adults get their paycheck. In the eyes of many people, the paycheck is the impetus for their work. They are taught that money will get them what they need. It is what allows them to provide for themselves and any family they have.
I side with Jessie J’s famous words, “It’s not about the money.” What exactly do adults provide for themselves and family? They provide money, but the cash is not what makes the family provided for. Someone could have all the money in the world, but that would not mean anything if there was nothing to buy. Money is used to buy other things, like food, rent, mortgage, or the necessary items for life. But the extra is used to pay for iPhones, internet connection, and Christmas presents, luxuries that are not vital. These are the things that make our lives more than survival. So Americans who think that they work for the money are wrong. In the big picture, Americans work, not for the money, but to make their life and society better.
By definition, Americans do not work for the money. In order to understand the concept, one must agree that work is, as defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary, “the labor, task, or duty that is one's accustomed means of livelihood” (Work). Livelihood, as defined by Google, is “a means of securing the necessities of life” (Livelihood). Therefore, one works to secure the necessities of life, and not money. But once one secures the necessities of life, there is no point in working anymore, according to this definition. So there is another one, “a sustained physical or mental effort to overcome obstacles and achieve an objective or result” (Work). So now, by definition, once one gets what they need to survive, they work to get a result, and still not for money. This result, what they work to make or do, helps themselves because it gives them the ability to indirectly obtain a little of everyone else’s work. People can take their result and exchange it for different ones. It also helps society because the result can be used by others to improve their lives.
Many adults still blindly believe that they work for the money. The goal of work is not to have a roll of bills with writing on them. Money is a medium for obtaining other services or products provided by other humans, not a golden ticket to a better life. Working, as a way to earn money, is the golden ticket. The more money one has, the more they can get of other products or services. In other words, people do not work for money for the sake of getting money, which should not be looked upon as if magical. What should be are the things one gets with it. Without these things, money has no value. Jonathan Wells of AdvancedLifeSkills.com agrees, “Think about the fact that the currency we exchange is nothing more than printed paper. It does not really have any value at all except the value that’s been assigned to it” (Wells). But there is also a deeper meaning. In working and trading with others, people help society and allow the services and products to continue to exist and to be accessible.
Assuming that most people want to live and have a happy life, (hence the word “livelihood”) everything they do to stay alive, like eating, helps them to fulfill that goal, as well as the things they do that are extra, like going to a concert or watching a movie. And all these services are provided by other humans to make peoples’ lives better. So many Americans who think that they work for their paycheck are only seeing half of the chain of events. This paycheck allows someone to access tons of results from other humans’ work. In the process of working, people provide a service, object, or emotion to themselves and society. If someone works, then society can get a little of what the person does for a living.
Each and every honest job makes someone’s life better. A sports player entertains all the fans. A hotel manager provides a place for people to stay overnight and relax. A member of the army provides protection so that people do not have to fear invasion. And even a farmer provides food so that people have something to eat. The leaders of many companies agree. According to CNN, “When (Fortune Magazine) asked scores of managers, from CEOs to warehouse supervisors, why they worked, the three most common reasons cited besides paying the mortgage were to make the world a better place, to help themselves and others on their team grow spiritually and intellectually, and lastly, to perfect their technical skills” (Dumaine). The CEO’s who already have the money have realized that they work to help society and make the world a better place. Americans should not have to become excessively rich before they understand this.
If no one worked, the human race would perish due to many factors, one being the lack of food production. This is why people work to survive first. But luxuries like Twitter, iPhones, and even just electricity would also be nonexistent. Inventions pop up every day that make our lives easier and more enjoyable. In today’s society, people have jobs that cover all of these luxuries. The reason we have them and the reason we buy them is because they make our lives better. According to MyFuture.edu, one of the reasons people work is because, “... (you) feel as if you fit into and contribute to society” (MyFuture). At the same time that working makes someone’s life better because they feel like they fit in, it makes society better because they contributed.
For example, an employee at Apple works to make cell phones. She helps society by providing the public with innovative devices that make life easier. The worker gets paid for the result of her work (cell phones). Then, she goes to Toyota and buys a car. Plumbers, authors, construction workers, and people of other jobs also buy cars from Toyota. They take the results of their work and use money to indirectly exchange results. In doing so, they all help Toyota’s business by buying their product. Now, Toyota will not go out of business and can continue to provide people with cars. People work to provide themselves and society a service or product. When people buy some of those services or products, they help the worker.
There is, however, a price to live, and some people earn salaries that are barely enough to cover the cost of a car. Food, water, and shelter do not come for free, so one must work to obtain these things. Generally, people who help society more than others get more money and therefore are allowed to access more of others’ work, but this is not always the case.
Often, society takes the things that they need for granted, such as water, heat, and safety. Instead, the things that are valued more are the things people want. Some people work to provide the necessities of life, yet these people are not nearly as appreciated as people who provide luxuries. Understanding that people do not work for the money, this is one of several issues that rise up to the surface about how people help or take away from society.
The President of the United States is often insulted for raising taxes while at the same time, he is doing an excellent job keeping America safe. On the other hand, Americans dote on the latest pop stars who provide a service that may be nice, but is totally unneeded. Teachers provide training for kids so they can get their own job someday, yet people like the Kardashians get more attention for just being famous. A flaw in society is that there are many cases where people who help society more receive less and vice versa. Soldiers who risk their lives for their country should be paid more than someone who runs around on a field for a living. Everyday farmers could raise the prices of food up drastically and society would have no choice but to pay them, yet tickets to a concert will burn a hole in someone’s pocket. Maybe Americans should stop complaining about taxes and start complaining about the prices of things that are not needed as much as a government.
When famous musicians and athletes earn enough to last them a lifetime, some of them retire early. This is another issue. Everyone has a duty to help society, and by retiring early one selfishly neglects to fulfill that duty. As long as someone is physically and mentally able, they should continue to work for the benefit of society. If someone retires early, then they are probably provided for for the rest of their life. So if they keep working, they will still have an advantage over others because they are doing extra for themselves. Someone might say that if a man worked extremely hard at a young age then he should deserve an early retirement. He might deserve a small period of rest, but as long as he is able, there is no reason besides selfishness for him to stop working and therefore stop benefiting society while others continue to do so. Working also gives more meaning to other workers. According to Paul Hsieh from Philosophy in Action, “Dropping out of the work force while still in one’s prime means ending one’s contributions to America’s strength,” and, “‘seasoned citizens’ could serve our communities while giving meaning and money to people with decades of life and activity left in them” (Hsieh). Retiring early is like a football team refusing to play the rest of the season because they already clinched a playoff spot. They may deserve a first round bye in the playoffs, but they should keep playing to give the other teams a chance and to benefit the league.
On the other hand, someone who works too much benefits society much more than themselves. The worker gives out a great deal more to society then they take in. Usually, people spend the money they earn on other people’s work, but someone who works too much produces more of their result, making it more accessible to the public. At the same time, the person is not spending money on other people’s work, therefore giving more opportunity for society to get others’ work as well. Working overtime is unselfish, but could take away from the laborer’s life experience. If the whole point is that people work to make other people’s lives better, someone who works overtime has limited access to some work due to the lack of recreational time. Sure, there are many jobs geared towards helping people while they work, but there is a multitude of jobs directed at free time. By working overtime, someone has little or no free time, so they cannot listen to the radio, watch T.V., or play a sport.
All of the strenuous hours put into making televisions, constructing stadiums, creating music or movies, or making cars are worked by Americans for something beyond the money. The honest jobs occupied by hardworking Americans are meant to help society, yet all the Americans’ have in mind are pieces of paper. Americans need to realize that their work gets them some of everyone else’s work, not money. From trash collectors in dirty cities to powerful executives of prosperous companies, Americans need to realize and live out the true meaning of their work: to help themselves and society have a better life, and “It’s not about the money, money, money…”

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