Slacking-Off for a Living

Oct. 6, 2006 — -- It's not sexy, like lust. Or passionate, like wrath. Or even filling, like gluttony.

It's the deadly sin you commit when you're not that committed to sinning, or to anything else, for that matter.

IN TOUCH: Send Your Video Comments

It's sloth, loafing, slacking, or as Tom Lutz's new book puts it: "Doing Nothing."

"Sloth seems to me to be that kind of doing nothing that we don't like," Lutz said.

Yet it's celebrated as the less-than-animating force behind pop culture's anti-heroes: think "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "You, Me & Dupree"; fat cat Garfield; Archie's friend Jughead and Popeye's pal Wimpy; and Maynard G. Krebs on "Dobie Gillis" to Kramer on "Seinfeld."

For centuries, Lutz says, people labored without seeing moral value in it. Nowadays "doing nothing" flies in the face of the American work ethic.

Alan Beggarow of Rock Falls, Ill., knows that "not working" gets people talking.

He spent 30 years working at a steel mill, before getting laid off, but now, when asked whether anyone ever calls him a slacker, Beggarow smiles, saying, "Oh, yes. I'm beginning to think that's my middle name."

At 53, he spends his days reading books, blogging, or playing the piano.

"People either give me a thumbs up: 'Good for you, 30 years in a steel mill, you're doin' what you want. Right on.' Or they say, 'You no-good lazy bum. You're in danger of losing your manhood. You're just against everything this country stands for.'"

Six years ago, Beggarow was making $50,000.

When the steel mill closed in 2001, and he couldn't find comparable employment, he stopped looking.

Beggarow and his wife, Kathleen, get by on his pension and her part-time jobs. They forgo vacation trips and pricey restaurants.

It's not the lifestyle he necessarily would have chosen, but Beggarow finds it fulfilling -- far more fulfilling than flipping burgers at a fast-food place.

"Not that I'm too good for that," he said. "But just in this point in my life, there's other things I do."