Rather than: "Let's use our extra wealth to give people some more leisure time."
We could say: "Let's use our extra wealth to take more leisure time for ourselves."
My life goal is to help end the necessity of human work for our survival, and I think it's critically important that we understand that this will only happen if we take the time. John Maynard Keynes famously predicted in 1930 that as productivity rose, working hours would drop and at some point we would all be working 15 hour work weeks. That didn't happen though, and it seems in a huge part related to the fact that, as productivity rose business owners turned that in to profit for themselves rather than sharing the profits with workers.
So suggesting business owners "give" us that time seems unlikely, and I think we need to take it for ourselves. We can do that by becoming business owners ourselves, either by joining a cooperative[1] or by starting our own business, or we can do that by earning a high enough salary that working 4/5 as much would still pay the bills, and then negotiating hard with prospective employers until you find one that needs you enough to accept a 32 hour a week schedule.
Anyway, I'm completely agreeing with you, I've just spent a lot of time thinking (and writing) about this and I think the language of suggesting we "give" this to workers critically misses out on the workers' agency and ability to take what they want for themselves.
Certainly, achieving this will not be easy and there are many problems, but I think it's a goal so worth achieving that we ought to work hard to figure that out.
[1] For more information on the benefits of a cooperative-business based economy, see the excellent book "Democracy at Work" By Richard Wolff: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13591849-democracy-at-wor...
I suppose if you say everyone who wants a bit bit more leisure time should leave cities for cheaper places it works out monetarily, but then people have to move.
The median income is low because a small fraction of people take a large fraction of the wealth. But workers could leave wage jobs and become co-owners in a cooperative business, where wealth gains would be shared by all.
Does that make sense?
You hit the nail. This is exactly the reason why the 15 hour workweek did't arrive. And unless systemic changes happen it is also the reason why a market requires regulation.
5 days of work. Get up, get self ready, get kids ready, get kids to school, work, get home, feed kids, get kids to bed. Too mentally tired to do anything now, and if it's not summer then the Sun's either down or going down. Hope you didn't need to mow the damn lawn again, or your evening's really shot.
Day 6, spend actually quality time with kids (finally!), begin to recover from the work week.
Day 7, starting to feel like a real human again, maybe do just a little stuff for one's self, get the house in order after 6 days of chaos, do other necessary stuff that was deferred during the work week.
Day 8: five days of work starts over.
Can't say I agree.
On the contrary, 2 days off and I would have nowhere near the time I would like to do all the things I want to do.
Policy is how we get to the point there is choice. A short workweek, vacation time, and policies that allow for family or self-care means one can choose overtime: Choose a second job: Choose to work a seasonal job during their vacation. Choose to take time off of their job to take care of family obligations, choose to stay home from work when sick.
Sure, theoretically you can choose some of these things, but you might not be able to afford housing or food or ensure you still have a job if your 2 children get sick a few times in a year. Some folks won't hire someone that isn't willing to put in the time, etc.
The whole point is that you have to have an environment where you have that sort of choice. And I can't see us getting there without legislation.
I agree wholeheartedly, though unfortunately increased productivity is just being used to increase profit margins.
I didn't want to sit around and "wait for it to happen" so I just started doing this myself - taking tons of unpaid leave every year, and even completely quitting so my average days worked in the last ~10 years is something below 50%. I'm much happier for it.
These questions arise from the fact that profits and productivity have soared, while employment and most people's incomes have stagnated or dropped.