Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Expenses

• I completely agree with Thoreau and his opinions on walking and especially on working. Today’s society, as well as the age that Thoreau lived in, people worked very hard for very little. I think constantly about money in the fashion of what each hour of my labor at my job gets me. For example, my motorcycle needs to be worked, for every entire day I work I can pay the mechanic for one hour of work, not including parts. Is my time really worth being spent in that fashion? Should I spend an entire day of labor for an exchange of one hour’s inspection and repair? I suppose it would depend on who you were and how bad you wanted it. For me the exchange on this is worth it.
  However, I must say that if I made the terribly low income that I make now and was forced to live alone and pay all my bills without anyone’s assistance the tradeoff of time versus lifestyle would be very much not worth it. I know many people who work over 40 hours a week and have only a small apartment with used old furniture and live off of white rice, macaroni, and the occasional feast of spaghetti. You would then be better off getting food stamps or visiting a food bank.  In my teens and early twenties I spent the vast majority of my time sleeping on random friend’s couches, eating their food, and riding my motorcycle whenever I could pull together gas money. It was probably the greatest time of my life. In fact, in Seattle gas had skyrocket to over $6 a gallon causing me not to able to afford to drive my car. Which is why I traded it for a motorcycle in the first place, discovering one of my great passions.
  Many people today think the millennial generation is the laziest generation. Millennials have to work twice as hard to earn half as much money as the Baby Boomer generation. Why should it be a surprise that they work less? I was listening to the radio at work once and a commercial came on saying that Millennials are “choosing not to buy houses”. I laughed so hard I almost threw up. After graduating with enough debt to have bought a house in the first place, then finding a job that pays significantly less than employment paid a few decades ago, Millennials didn’t choose not buy houses, they simply cannot afford too.