No Space Left

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land. Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. Isaiah 5:8, 11

The passage above could be describing modern life in America. My previous post titled Alone quoted from a recent study which indicates that Americans are becoming more isolated and socially alone.

Our pursuit for the "American Dream" leaves us tired, stressed and with little time for developing relationships. Recent studies show that workers in the United States are putting in more hours than anyone else in the industrialized world, with Japan second.

Lawrence Jeff Johnson, the chief labor market economist who has led the International Labor Organization team in producing its new "Key Indicators of the Labor Market 2001-2002" study, says American workers are, per person, more productive than their counterparts in other countries. "But we're not the most efficient, when you compare it per hour, looking at the Belgians and the French."

Johnson says the Europeans' comparatively long vacations, four to six weeks per worker, may have something to do with this. "Maybe they're not so stressed" as American workers, who on the average may get two weeks' vacation. On the average, Americans worked 1978 hours in 2001. In comparison, the British worked 250 hours less and the Germans 500 hours less!

Many researches have noted that loneliness is prevalent in, and may even be encouraged by, the North American culture. They have reasoned that the North American culture emphasizes individual achievement, competitiveness, and impersonal social relating.

As a society and culture we are pursuing materialism at the expense of our spiritual and social health. We rise early in the morning and run to Starbucks for our morning drink. In the middle of our nice neighborhoods live scores of people who go to bed tired and lonely. We have traded margin for materialism. Our garages our filled with more stuff than we will ever need or use. Our calendars are filled with activities that keep us busy. Our hearts and minds are preoccupied with the next deal. There is no space left in which to live.