By Haddon Libby
As many of us enjoy a shortened work week due to the Labor Day holiday, I got to thinking about how lazy we have become as a society. Sure, I know you work hard. I do too. Deep down though, we are lazy.
The remote control would not exist if we were not inherently lazy. Most technological breakthroughs have helped to remove many of the most labor intensive jobs from society. Looking around my house, I can lock or unlock my front door, turn on or off most lights, the television and the radio with either my voice or a SmartPhone. Then I can take something out of my freezer, tap a few buttons on the microwave and voila, dinner is served.
A new study at the University of Kansas found the Darwin may have been wrong with his “survival of the fittest” studies. Their study of 299 species found that the species with the lowest metabolic rates tended to survive the longest. For example, a lazier hummingbird does not outlive a more active hummingbird – the study referenced the behavior of the species as a whole. Like humans, fitness and diet extend life span.
As lazy as many of us can be, we still do not sleep enough. Americans spend $41 billion annually on sleep aids. Sleep labs are a growing business trend across the United States with over 2,800 locations generating more than $7 billion in revenues annually. Industry analysts believe revenues will top $10 billion within three years.
(Public Service Announcement: Doctors recommend that everyone over 18 years of age should sleep at least seven hours each night.)
Lazy people are more often than not procrastinators. Psychological Science studied 264 adults and found that procrastinators have larger amygdala regions in their brains than their more timely brethren. People with big amygdalas are more likely to be more anxious or fearful of bad outcomes and therefore have a harder time starting and completing things.
All of this begs the question – who are the laziest people on Earth? To measure this, medical journal The Lancet determined that humans need at least 2.5 hours of physical activity a week to remain healthy as nearly 10% of the world’s 60 million deaths annually are due to laziness.
Using this low bar as the benchmark to physical health, 71% of the people of Malta are unfit. Two out of three Brits lead unfit lifestyles whereas ‘only’ 40% of Americans are unfit. The study found that 67% of American men were ‘fit’ whereas only 53% of women reached minimum fitness levels. The fittest countries were India, Greece and Vietnam at 85%.
No look into laziness is complete without an effort to find the laziest person on Earth.
The nominees are:
Alberto Muraglia of San Remo, Italy. This police officer had an apartment in the building that housed his precinct. Hidden cameras found that he would punch in to start his work day in his underwear and then go back home to bed. Somedays, his wife or daughter would punch in for him.
Ray Brent Marsh of Noble, Georgia owned the Tri-State Crematorium. One day his furnace stopped working and instead of fixing the furnaces, he let the corpses build up in the back yard. His reasoning for doing this as shared with law enforcement was that he was too busy to get the furnace fixed and the backyard was his next best option.
My vote goes to Michael Rotondo of Camillus, New York. Rotondo is the 30 year old who was evicted by his parents from their home. How lazy do you have to be to get evicted from your parent’s house?
Haddon Libby is the hard-working and adequately-rested Founder and Managing Partner of Winslow Drake Investment Management. For those who are not too lazy, please visit www.WinslowDrake.com.
