by the Sandwichman
And it is well that nature imposes upon us in this manner. It is this deception which rouses and keeps in continual motion the industry of mankind. - Adam Smith
The "deception" Smith referred to in his Theory of Moral Sentiments was the idea that strenuous effort would bring riches, which in turn would bring ease. He ridiculed that belief on the part of the individual but then, paradoxically, praised it from the standpoint of society as the providence of an "invisible hand."
It is easy to be charmed by Smith's eloquence in the passage that begins, "The poor man's son, whom heaven in its anger has visited with ambition..." Thus charmed, the reader is led by a succession of small, seemingly-logical steps to a gross exaggeration and distortion of the disutility of work.
Then, when Smith finally pulls his redemptive rabbit out of the hat, the enchanted reader embraces it with relief and credulity. And lets pass the sublime hyperbole that, "the beggar, who suns himself by the side of the highway, possesses that security which kings are fighting for."
The deception was not nature's but Smith's. He made a magical solution seem plausible compared to a caricature whose credibility and morality had been stretched to the breaking point.
Valuing work -- whether it be market or non-market -- at the "opportunity cost" of foregone leisure is the same kind of Trojan horse as the fabled loathsomeness of Smith's poor man's son's toil. It embeds the quality of the activity inside a quantitative black box that tells me it's all the same whether my work is painful or pleasurable or whether my leisure is engaging or tedious. To that injury, the Becker shuffle adds the insult that some Chicago Boy knows better than I whether I'm fishing for food or for fun.
According to the scheme, I get to choose to optimize my utility but somehow I don't have the option of discerning that I didn't actually have a choice. So, remind me then, how does choice happen in the absence of discernment?
Pat Hallihan writes, "I watch way too much TV and play video games as opposed to something really relaxing like going camping. Why? TV fits time slots of 1/2 to 2 hours and requires no discernable prep time. Video games can fit into smaller frames down to 5 minutes but you most likely need at least 15 minutes. People go to dinner and a movie when they have a whole evening because it requires little preparation. To do something truly constructive and good for the soul you need time to relax and plan your activity, then make preparations, and then go out and do it. It is this type of time that has been lost to us."
Cathy O'Keefe writes, "Leisure cannot be defined simply as time not spent at work. Leisure has four essential attributes all recognized in the social psychology literature. They are:
1. Perceived freedom: People must have the freedom to choose the activities/non-activities that they consider enjoyable. They must be free from the obligations of family, work, or home activities.
2. Perceived competence: there must be a sense that a person is equal to the challenge for those activities that are freely engaged in. This competence doesn't have to be objectively measured. If it's good enough for the individual, it's competence.
3. Intrinsic motivation: this means that you can't be paid, rewarded, or coerced into the activity. It must come from the heart, an enjoyment that is completely generated from within.
4. Positive affect: This refers to self-determination and control within the leisure process."
Even watching TV may be leisure up to a certain point. But that point has arrived when one has neither the time nor the energy to do something else that would be more fulfilling.
"How do you measure that?" You don't. Just like with TV, you arrive at a point where measurement ceases to add anything to understanding but where the compulsion to measure at any cost subtracts from it. The Boston Fed paper, Measuring Trends in Leisure, is an exercise not in measurement but in clairvoyance. Smith's beggar, "who suns himself by the side of the highway," becomes for Aguiar and Hurst those less‐educated adults who, over the past 40 years, "have experienced the largest gains in leisure."
Posted by sandwichman at February 8, 2006 07:08 AM