Rob asked, Was it here I read the other day that when Britain was moved to a 3-day week by the energy crisis of '74, they found that productivity did not decrease? If so, I'd love a cite and/or anything else that comes to mind. Potent datum, if it's true, no?
Rob, One can't extrapolate from a short-term response to a crisis. For example, people working to a tight deadline on a project may put in many hours of overtime yet at the same time increase their hourly productivity. Besides, the question of work time is not an economic issue, it is a moral one. Hard work builds character ergo more hard work builds better character (see Hastert, 2002). Or so we're told. And told. And told. Although one could demonstrate in a three-hour seminar the feasibility of a 15-hour work week from the standpoint of productivity, one could never do it from the standpoint of morality. I use the term morality loosely (as do we all these days). I should clarify that by morality I mean fealty to the seven deadly sins* -- an expressly Satanic morality, perhaps, but the best we can do under the circumstances. Better than nothing, eh? One could compose a respectable corporate vision statement simply by expounding on the theme of each of the seven. In economic geometry terms, the deadlies could be summarized by the expression "demand curve". The problem -- the moral problem -- with a shorter work week is this (there is no other way to say it): "what would happen to the economy if people were to grow WEARY of sin?" *Pride, Avarice, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth Tom Walker 604 255 4812
