{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title":"Time for Things Labor, Leisure, and the Rise of Mass Consumption","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780674250529","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","uuid":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title":"Time for Things Labor, Leisure, and the Rise of Mass Consumption","normalized_title":"timeforthingslaborleisureandtheriseofmassconsumption","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780674250529","isbns":["9780674250529","9780674250536","9780674979512"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":355,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Time%20for%20Things%20Labor%2C%20Leisure%2C%20and%20the%20Rise%20of%20Mass%20Consumption","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/search"},"page":{"printed_page":76,"pdf_page":84,"physical_index":84,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"a90970ca142d926cab01cd8583e498e71e52104d6c5890373b2328c15f2ebf3b"},"chapter":"FOR","content":"Before pressing forward with the development of a theory along those lines, as an addendum to this chapter some attention should be paid to the question of whether the US pattern of productivity and work time is, in fact, atypical among capitalist societies and best explained in terms of national traits. Some analysts have suggested that the slow rate of decline in work time in the United States during the afluent postwar years reflects the cultural and historical idiosyncrasies of America, those that make it “exceptional” when compared to the rest of the capitalist world. Tibor Scitovsky (1992) and, to a lesser extent, Juliet Schor (1991) both make this kind of argument. Indeed, Scitovsky (who was by background a European aristocrat) suggests that the solution to what he regarded as a peculiarly American problem of overwork and overproduction is for Americans to emulate European practices of self-cultivation and savoir vivre. However, it is not clear how much of the diference in work hours between Europe and America is a result of a diference between the two in preferences for free time, one ultimately attributable to “culture,” and how much is a result of other factors. For example, during economic downturns, US firms typically shed workers. Those who remain work the same number of hours or sometimes even more, as they are forced to do some of the work of those who were made unemployed. By contrast, in Europe the response to economic downturns has, in the postwar period, been more likely to have involved a reduction of hours per worker rather than in numbers of employees. Reduced hours under those conditions clearly do not indicate a preference for leisure but rather a stronger commitment in Europe to a corporatist welfare capitalism that extends special protections to those in work (Esping-Andersen 1990). Similarly, in France the thirty-five-hour workweek was introduced in 2000 primarily as a way to address the problem of structural unemployment, by redistributing work.50 At the same time, marginal income tax rates in Europe have tended to be higher than in the United States, which decreases the incentive for working longer hours. These diferences in labor market regulation, industrial policy, and taxes have the efect of depressing work hours in Europe as compared to the United States.\n\n76\n\nTime for Things","previous_page":75,"next_page":77}