If you are busy, you don’t have time for philosophy. If you are engaged 24/7 with activities essential to your survival, contemplating the meaning of the universe is not a high priority. The pursuit of Philosophy and religion requires a certain amount of leisure. it is a pastime for those who have nothing better to do.
All of civilization is built on the right use of leisure time. Agriculture creates leisure time. No more hunting and gathering. The industrial revolution created more leisure time, at least for some. The information age does it again, eliminating all of those clerical and data entry jobs, and putting all of humanity’s knowledge at everyone’s fingertips. Of course not everyone yet, but soon.
There is no priesthood, no academia, no punditry, no political class, no artists, without leisure. So leisure has been beneficial for the aristocratic class, from whence comes most advances in philosophy, science, scholarship, the arts, and enlighterned rule, from the Roman empire until now.
Fewer adults in the USA are working now than ever since the great depression, due partly to Democratic economic policies, but mostly due to the fact that the modern economy just doesn’t need to have that many people working. This is only going to get worse, or better, depending on your point of view. The jobs are disappearing, and they aren’t coming back. For a long time now, the majority of government jobs have been unproductive and anti-productive ways of keeping the unemployable off the streets.
Although the majority of the unemployed may be opiod addicts, alcoholics, meth freaks, pot heads, and all-around ne’er-do-wells, there are at least a few who are thinking and creating. Maybe they will figure a way out of this mess, but I am skeptical.
People aren’t happy when they are not working. They are not only unhappy, they are self-destructive, ignorant, and in general a drag on society, i.e., the rest of us. Those few that vote will mostly vote for Bernie, the bringer of free stuff, and then Hillary, after Bernie bites the dust. Hopefully they are not yet enough to take us down the democratic path to idiocracy, but that day is coming unless something revolutionary is done.
Make America great again.