Work Work Work Work Work! (The Economist) \ stacker news ~econ

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UC, Berkeley labor survey

...finds that the world’s employed adult population works an average of 42 hours a week. This number contains multitudes. Gender, age and levels of economic development affect how many hours people work. Many jobs are not neatly packaged into five eight-hour days. But the 40-hour week is still a norm.

Some want to trade money for leisure, and others leisure for money. What else is new:

In Germany and Britain, people would be happy to sacrifice some money in return for more leisure time: the optimal workweek in Germany, for example, would last 37 hours. Americans, in contrast, would like to work longer and get more money. This might either be a comment on the precariousness of Americans’ finances or the fecklessness of Europeans.

I often tend to think that there's a quality dimension, too. I can write or edit all day, every day, but it won't be very good after ~4-5 peak hours a day.

"You might argue that the optimal workweek is defined by output, not hours."

yes, Rihanna says hi

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71 sats \ 6 replies \ @Undisciplined 7h

Americans take home pay is so much higher than Europeans’. Of course we generally want to work relatively more, the marginal benefit is higher.

Personally, I’m more like a European. Pay me less and let me work less.

69 sats \ 5 replies \ @denlillaapan OP 7h

knowing nothing else, you'd expect someone with a higher (real, takehome) wage be willing to substitute some for extra leisure... and conversely, someone relatively poorer willing to substitute some of their time for extra money.

But alas the world is stupid, and Europeans (#1056458), being lazy and silly, rather chill -- and rely on others for their daily bread. And overworked, consumerist Americans desire even more stuff.

I'm not sure who's the worst villain here

69 sats \ 3 replies \ @SimpleStacker 6h

This question of whether higher wages leads to more or less work is a common question we pose in intermediate micro, and the answer is that it could be either depending on how you draw the indifference curves haha

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 6h

Is leisure a normal good?

I bring this up a lot when people talk about how income taxes lead to less work. It’s not clear that they either do or should.

69 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker 6h

Good point. But then that makes the deadweight loss of taxation even harder to explain.

(Not meaning the DWL isn't there, more in the sense that it's hard to explain to people where DWL comes from).

67 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 6h

That’s a great point! I don’t think I’ve seen it raised before.

Yeah, it’s harder to explain the economic importance of what amounts to forgone leisure.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 6h

It’s not straightforward because a higher wage means leisure time is more expensive.

This is pretty heavily discussed amongst labor economists because people generally respond (or fail to) to wage increases weirdly.

118 sats \ 3 replies \ @Scoresby 7h

world’s employed adult population works an average of 42 hours a week

"The world's average human height is 5.525 inches" is also a statement that does not carry a whole lot of information.

177 sats \ 2 replies \ @denlillaapan OP 6h

truly.

my friend's favorite version: "if I told an alien that the average human has 1 testicle and 1 tit, they'd get a VERY strange idea of humans"

89 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker 6h

It's probably closer to 0.95 testicles and 1.05 tits, but I take your point.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @denlillaapan OP 6h

Crazy... female-male divergence, or are you saying men have tits?!

(if we count the obese male Americans, then that number ought to be WAY higher)

33 sats \ 0 replies \ @winteryeti 5h

I wish life was 9-to-5. I put in a 12 hour day regularly, 6 days a week usually.

33 sats \ 0 replies \ @Sandman 5h

I don't kill myself with many hours working for money. I love to have more time for kids.

33 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB 5h

yes, Rihanna says hi

HAHAHA this song is my jam!

33 sats \ 1 reply \ @Coinsreporter 6h

Have you heard of 'Therapeutic Laziness'?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @denlillaapan OP 4h

Noooo, say more?

54 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker 7h

This might either be a comment on the precariousness of Americans’ finances or the fecklessness of Europeans.

imma go with fecklessness of Europeans. Because it's fun to say. And because the french are cheese eating surrender monkeys

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @denlillaapan OP 7h

don't forget the snails

38 sats \ 0 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 7h

But the 40-hour week is still a norm.

In Portugal, only public sector workers do 35 hours. In the private sector it’s 40.

"Nine to five is still alive."