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<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#008000 size=2>this is correct, up
to a point. it does make clear the price in human terms americans
are paying for all that "productivity." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#008000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#008000 size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#008000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#008000 size=2>R</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#008000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #008000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=seamus2001@attbi.com href="mailto:seamus2001@attbi.com">Ian
Murray</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org
href="mailto:lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org">lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, June 29, 2003 7:10 PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [lbo-talk] friendless
Americans</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Why Americans have no pals<BR><BR>Stephen Jenkins and Lars
Osberg<BR>Monday June 30, 2003<BR>The Guardian<BR><BR>American workers spend
an average of almost 10 hours longer in the office<BR>each week than their
French or German counterparts. Our research suggests<BR>that one reason for
this may be that they are more likely to have "nobody<BR>to play with" -
because other Americans are also working more hours. As a<BR>result, everyone
may be worse off.<BR><BR>Many of the things that people want to do outside
work involve other<BR>people and are distinctly more enjoyable if done with
others. Even growing<BR>roses or watching television is usually more
pleasurable if done with a<BR>companion.<BR><BR>But the problem in wanting to
have a social life is that one cannot decide<BR>on it unilaterally. Simply to
list these activities is to underscore the<BR>variety of people's leisure
tastes. To have a satisfying social life one<BR>has both to locate somebody
with compatible tastes and to schedule<BR>simultaneous free time.<BR><BR>The
implication is that, the more that other people work, the harder it is<BR>for
each individual to schedule and match their own leisure time.<BR><BR>If
bird-watching clubs close because everybody is too busy to organise<BR>outings
and chess clubs fold because people don't go anymore, then the<BR>satisfaction
that bird watchers and chess players get from their leisure<BR>time will
decline.<BR><BR>When there is "nobody to play with" many people may then
decide to work<BR>even more hours. Since both formal organised activities
(like darts<BR>leagues) and informal matching (such as the chances of picking
up a<BR>singles game at the tennis club) depend on how many other
like-minded<BR>people have free time, at the same time, the value of each
person's<BR>leisure time depends on how many hours other people are working,
and at<BR>what times.<BR><BR>The British Household Panel Survey provides
evidence that the likelihood<BR>of engaging in "associational activity" for
people in a given age group<BR>depends on how many people in other age groups
also engage in that<BR>activity.<BR><BR>Our research reveals the extent to
which an individual's engagement in<BR>associational activity depends on the
working time and leisure activity<BR>decisions of others, inside and outside
the household.<BR><BR>We find that when other people increase their hours of
paid work, the<BR>probability of a feasible and desirable leisure match also
falls, which<BR>decreases the personal value of non-work time. In addition,
greater<BR>mismatch between the timing of hours of work will reduce the
probability<BR>of a leisure time match being feasible - which also lowers the
value of<BR>non-work time.<BR><BR>Both effects imply an increase in desired
hours of paid work, since<BR>leisure has become less enjoyable. So, in
general, the desired labour<BR>supply of each person will depend on their
expectations of the labour<BR>supply decisions of others.<BR><BR>We suggest
that societies that are better able to coordinate the level and<BR>timing of
paid working hours may be better off because they enable their<BR>citizens to
enjoy more satisfying social lives.<BR><BR>Our analysis also draws a link
between decreasing social contacts and<BR>rising hours of work. If authors
such as Robert Putnam are correct in<BR>stressing the dependence of social
capital on associational life and the<BR>importance of social capital for
social and economic development, the<BR>costs of a high-work/low-social life
outcome may be substantial.<BR><BR>Paper available from <A
href="http://www.iza.org">http://www.iza.org</A> (link to
Events/IZA<BR>Conferences/Past
Conferences)<BR><BR><BR><BR>___________________________________<BR><A
href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk">http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</A><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>