Why the rich now have less leisure than the poor
Reason # 5: They enjoy work more than home life
The poor work more hours than the rich, right?
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A variety of explanations are offered by a wide range of experts: Summarizing the article, here are the top 6 reason that the rich work longer than the poor.
The substitution effect. Higher wages make leisure more expensive: if people take time off they give up more money.
The winner-takes-all nature of modern economies may amplify the substitution effect. The scale of the global market means businesses that innovate tend to reap huge gains (think of YouTube, Apple and Goldman Sachs).
Work has come to offer the sort of pleasures that rich people used to seek in their time off.
On the flip side, leisure is no longer a sign of social power. Instead, it symbolizes uselessness and unemployment.
As work becomes more intellectually stimulating, people start to enjoy work more than home life.
Information technology, by opening a vast world of high-quality and cheap home entertainment, means that low-earners do not need to work as long to enjoy a reasonably satisfying leisure
Read the whole story at The Economist
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The Economists cites other research:
Americans with a bachelor’s degree or above work two hours more each day than those without a high-school diploma.
The share of college-educated American men regularly working more than 50 hours a week rose from 24% in 1979 to 28% in 2006, but fell for high-school dropouts.
How can this happen?
Wrong, according to a recent article in The Economist. The rich have begun to work longer hours than the poor. In 1965 men with a college degree, who tend to be richer, had a bit more leisure time than men who had only completed high school. But by 2005 the college-educated had eight hours less (leisure) a week than the high-school grads.
"Leisure is no longer a sign of social power. Instead, it symbolizes uselessness and unemployment."
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