Harry, (HP) <<<< However, when the whole economy, or whole society, or our entire life, needs experts to explain it to us, we have a problem. Keith and others often worry about such things as how we can handle the leisure time for the coming generations. That's a really complicated problem, given what we know, or suspect, about people. Yet it's none of our damn business. A person may, or may not, have leisure time. What he does with it is his business. "We" doesn't come into it. >>>>
I've never worried about this! Most people don't want too much leisure because they'd be bored out of their minds. I may have said in the past that the immense productivity gains over the past few decades *could* have resulted theoretically in a 10/15 hour working week in modern times. But this simply hasn't happened -- as we can all see. Most males like long working weeks, especially if there's plenty of company at work, because it means that they needn't go home and share in the housework. The higher the status, intrinsic interest or social contacts of a job, the more hours that will be spent "at work". The actual length of the working week has hardly changed for a century despite legislation. Most legislation or trade union agreements for shorter working weeks are actually about the opportunity to increase the number of overtime hours paid at premium rates. Nor will the working week ever decline significantly until the infrastructure of our society reverts to its original communal basis -- thus offering comparable social interest to "work". Keith ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- Keith Hudson,6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel:01225 312622/444881; Fax:01225 447727; E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
