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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spectre72" data-source="post: 2328202" data-attributes="member: 18885">Surviving is relative term.  If I have a $1000 a month mortgage payment then in a modern society paying that is surviving.  In ages past Surviving may have meant planting grain.  Again, this depends upon where you live and the type of employment you have.  With the cost of living increasing faster than salaries are adjusted there are many of my friends who have had to take multiple jobs just to keep the bills paid.  I am lucky that I have a decent job, but not everyone has escaped working at just above minimum wage.  Technology has reduced the burden of housework, but where you had all day to do it before you now only have after work to get it done.This is somewhat true, but commitments are physical (need money to pay bills) and cultural (take kids to baseball).  You are also correct in that values have changed over the last 20 years or so and that has had a significant effect.What I wouldn't give to have any of the items on that list consuming my time.  TV watching is at most a couple of hours a week.  Electronic gaming no way do I have time for that.  Reading a book, maybe one book over the last year (5 minutes or so nightly before sleep).  Watching a movie, Episode 3 was the only one in the last 9-12 months.  Sporting event - no way.Work every day and on call 24 hours a day.  Volunteer firefighter with multiple meetings, calls, and training.  Spend most weekends doing home improvement repair, our house had been neglected for 8 years before we bought it.  Gaming once a month.  Weddings, graduations, family events a couple times a month it seems.  Add to that normal household cleaning and maintainance and taking care of my wife's mother and we are going every day from 8 AM to 9PM with the calendar booked months in advance. And we don't even have kids yet!!!It seems like there was a shift in the 1990's that took America toward the current amount of free time (real or percieved) that combined with a shift in values and beliefs to get us where we are today.I am not disagreeing that people make choices about how to spend their free time, but I do believe there are more demands on it.</blockquote>

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