Pretty interesting coverage of a new article by Virginia Postrel in Reveries. She writes cool stuff that I should read more often.

The surprise is, Americans spend a lot more time — six whole weeks — on vacation today than they did in 1965, reports Virginia Postrel in The New York Times (2/23/06). It all depends on how you define “vacation” — because there is leisure time and there is leisure time. The difference between leisure and work is divided by that for which we might otherwise be paid (or pay someone else). Going to St. Lucia, for instance, qualifies as leisure because you probably wouldn’t pay someone else to do that for you. Cooking dinner, on the other hand, might be something you enjoy, but in theory you could just order take-out. So, the rise of microwave ovens and takeout dinners is one reason we aren’t “working” as much as we did in the past.

Based on that definition of leisure, economists Erik Hurst and Mark A. Aguiar have written a paper in which they calculate that “leisure had increased 5.1 hours a week, holding demographics like age constant. (Without that control, leisure has grown 4.6 hours). Assuming a 40-hour work week, that is like adding six weeks of vacation — an enormous increase.” That increase “is particularly striking for women … In 2003, women spent 11.1 fewer hours a week working at home than they did in 1965. The biggest drop, 6.2 hours a week, came in cooking and cleaning up after meals — not surprising, given the enormous growth in restaurant and takeout meals and the spread of microwave ovens. More women working outside the home created more demand for such conveniences, which, in turn, enabled more women to work outside the home.” As Dr. Hurst notes: “A women who was working full time in 1965 was also working full time at home, almost — 40 hours in the market, 20 or 25 hours at home.”

As for the men (the bums), well, here are the stats: "Ninety-seven percent of men ages 21 to 65 had jobs in 1965, compared with 87 percent in 2004. That drop accounts for about 60 percent of men’s increase in leisure time." In addition: "Low-educated men used to work a lot … Now they don’t work a lot," says Dr. Hurst. "If they’re unemployed, I would have expected them to do much more home production to offset the fact that they don’t have a salary." (There’s a reason they call people like Dr. Hurst "academics"). His research also finds that 40 year olds don’t work nearly as much as they did in 1965 and that "longer life spans mean more retirement years." Says Dr. Hurst: "It used to be that you worked till 65, and died at 66. Now you work till 65 and die at 80." Happy Monday. ~ Tim Manners, editor