text: is it possible that making some people work physically harder than others without breaks tears down their body in our society, 10% of the people, the ones who can be more bullied around, do 90% of the work.  does this cause permanent muscle breakdown when these people dont get a break day after day especially on a continuing basis?  i heard that people over 40 need 48 hours to repair muscle damage and yet we hire young people to do brain work and keep the old people doing all the physical labor!  why is this and why is it that the smaller old people are always seeming to be doing the physical work? bodies are pretty resilient.  that said, i'm sure it's not good for someone to work non-stop without a break.  young people are hired for 'brain' work as you put it because they are fresh out of school and on the cutting edge of technology.  older people (some not all) prefer not to learn new things and are then relegated to accepting what positions they can to make a living.  just my opinion.