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Log inno time - how did we get so busy?
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no time - how did we get so busy?
by bw Sat May 24, 2014 9:23 pm
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2014/05/26/140526crbo_books_kolbert?currentPage=all
Joseph Stiglitz, of Columbia University, by contrast, takes a constructivist approach. People’s choices, he argues, are molded by society and, over time, become self-reinforcing. We “learn how to consume by consuming,” he writes, and how to “enjoy leisure by enjoying leisure.”
In support of this position, Stiglitz cites the contrasting experiences of Europeans and Americans. In the nineteen-seventies, the British, the French, and the Germans—though notably not the Italians—put in just as many hours at work as Americans. But then, à la Keynes, the Europeans began trading income for leisure. The average employed American now works roughly a hundred and forty hours more per year than the average Englishman and three hundred hours more than the average Frenchman. (Current French law mandates that workers get thirty paid vacation days per year, British law twenty-eight; the corresponding figure in the U.S. is zero.) Stiglitz predicts that Europeans will further reduce their working hours and become even more skilled at taking time off, while Americans, having become such masterful consumers, will continue to work long hours and to buy more stuff. TVs, he notes, “can be put in every room and in both the front and the back of automobiles.”
Joseph Stiglitz, of Columbia University, by contrast, takes a constructivist approach. People’s choices, he argues, are molded by society and, over time, become self-reinforcing. We “learn how to consume by consuming,” he writes, and how to “enjoy leisure by enjoying leisure.”
In support of this position, Stiglitz cites the contrasting experiences of Europeans and Americans. In the nineteen-seventies, the British, the French, and the Germans—though notably not the Italians—put in just as many hours at work as Americans. But then, à la Keynes, the Europeans began trading income for leisure. The average employed American now works roughly a hundred and forty hours more per year than the average Englishman and three hundred hours more than the average Frenchman. (Current French law mandates that workers get thirty paid vacation days per year, British law twenty-eight; the corresponding figure in the U.S. is zero.) Stiglitz predicts that Europeans will further reduce their working hours and become even more skilled at taking time off, while Americans, having become such masterful consumers, will continue to work long hours and to buy more stuff. TVs, he notes, “can be put in every room and in both the front and the back of automobiles.”
bw- Posts : 2922
Join date : 2012-11-15
Re: no time - how did we get so busy?
by confuzzled dude Sun May 25, 2014 7:38 am
Why don't you move to France or something if you can't appreciate the laws of the land you chose to live in while enjoying comfortable life. I'm getting sick & tired of constant libby-hypocritical-whining-and-their-double-standards. They refuse to help economy; they don't even buy a cheap glock but never fail to take potshots at the country that provides them with a nice lifestyle. You must be part of that H1-B herd of cheapos that invaded this posh country in the '90s.
confuzzled dude- Posts : 10205
Join date : 2011-05-08
Re: no time - how did we get so busy?
by truthbetold Sun May 25, 2014 9:06 am
Cd
Amusing humor. While you are at it, why don't you also humor us about why any one would like to copy a French system?
Amusing humor. While you are at it, why don't you also humor us about why any one would like to copy a French system?
truthbetold- Posts : 6799
Join date : 2011-06-07
Re: no time - how did we get so busy?
by confuzzled dude Sun May 25, 2014 9:24 am
I only took a page out of the humor book of wanna be gun-nut buddy of yours so be watchful of what you saytruthbetold wrote:Cd
Amusing humor. While you are at it, why don't you also humor us about why any one would like to copy a French system?
confuzzled dude- Posts : 10205
Join date : 2011-05-08
Re: no time - how did we get so busy?
by truthbetold Sun May 25, 2014 9:41 am
cdconfuzzled dude wrote:I only took a page out of the humor book of wanna be gun-nut buddy of yours so be watchful of what you saytruthbetold wrote:Cd
Amusing humor. While you are at it, why don't you also humor us about why any one would like to copy a French system?
It can only be humor when you post it. So let us get back to French. What is the answer?
truthbetold- Posts : 6799
Join date : 2011-06-07
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