All good questions. Some of which can be got at through existing surveys some cannot. But I think your questions are right on the money. The working class has new cleavages based on income and hours inequality. And while I am not a big fan of dual labour market theory as a first cut description it is not bad.
> 2. Are the total hours per week taken up by grocery shopping more, the
> same, less than during the golden age of u.s. labor? (And it is _only_
> the golden age, whenever that was, that is a relevant standard of
> comparison.) Are these total hours of shopping about the same in all
> sectors of the working class or are there significant differences?
> Travel to and from work? Time spent on child care? (If current social
> standards require more or allow fewer hours per day in 'hands-on' child
> care?)
>
I am not sure about the US but in Canada commute times are up which I
personally think ought to be included as hours of work. Again here I
suspect there are significant inequalities.
To my mind having more members of the household engaged in paid labour = more stress even if the total hours have not changed that much. Most of the two working couple families I know spend most of their free time talking about work or sharing office gossip. It is like hanging out with grad students: a never ending story about what they do.
Travis