[lbo-talk] friendless Americans

R rhisiart at charter.net
Mon Jun 30 12:44:50 PDT 2003


this is correct, up to a point. it does make clear the price in human terms americans are paying for all that "productivity."

the authors ignore the fact that most americans (at least those who still have jobs) find their friends largely from work situations, rather than their local bird watching club. this has been going on for decades, and gives work a dangerous hold on people. TV shows, like the drew carey show and several others, are perfect examples of the work/friends relationship theme.

R

----- Original Message -----

From: Ian Murray

To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org

Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2003 7:10 PM

Subject: [lbo-talk] friendless Americans

Why Americans have no pals

Stephen Jenkins and Lars Osberg

Monday June 30, 2003

The Guardian

American workers spend an average of almost 10 hours longer in the office

each week than their French or German counterparts. Our research suggests

that one reason for this may be that they are more likely to have "nobody

to play with" - because other Americans are also working more hours. As a

result, everyone may be worse off.

Many of the things that people want to do outside work involve other

people and are distinctly more enjoyable if done with others. Even growing

roses or watching television is usually more pleasurable if done with a

companion.

But the problem in wanting to have a social life is that one cannot decide

on it unilaterally. Simply to list these activities is to underscore the

variety of people's leisure tastes. To have a satisfying social life one

has both to locate somebody with compatible tastes and to schedule

simultaneous free time.

The implication is that, the more that other people work, the harder it is

for each individual to schedule and match their own leisure time.

If bird-watching clubs close because everybody is too busy to organise

outings and chess clubs fold because people don't go anymore, then the

satisfaction that bird watchers and chess players get from their leisure

time will decline.

When there is "nobody to play with" many people may then decide to work

even more hours. Since both formal organised activities (like darts

leagues) and informal matching (such as the chances of picking up a

singles game at the tennis club) depend on how many other like-minded

people have free time, at the same time, the value of each person's

leisure time depends on how many hours other people are working, and at

what times.

The British Household Panel Survey provides evidence that the likelihood

of engaging in "associational activity" for people in a given age group

depends on how many people in other age groups also engage in that

activity.

Our research reveals the extent to which an individual's engagement in

associational activity depends on the working time and leisure activity

decisions of others, inside and outside the household.

We find that when other people increase their hours of paid work, the

probability of a feasible and desirable leisure match also falls, which

decreases the personal value of non-work time. In addition, greater

mismatch between the timing of hours of work will reduce the probability

of a leisure time match being feasible - which also lowers the value of

non-work time.

Both effects imply an increase in desired hours of paid work, since

leisure has become less enjoyable. So, in general, the desired labour

supply of each person will depend on their expectations of the labour

supply decisions of others.

We suggest that societies that are better able to coordinate the level and

timing of paid working hours may be better off because they enable their

citizens to enjoy more satisfying social lives.

Our analysis also draws a link between decreasing social contacts and

rising hours of work. If authors such as Robert Putnam are correct in

stressing the dependence of social capital on associational life and the

importance of social capital for social and economic development, the

costs of a high-work/low-social life outcome may be substantial.

Paper available from http://www.iza.org (link to Events/IZA

Conferences/Past Conferences)

___________________________________

http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20030630/eec310aa/attachment.htm>



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list