E35:As technology advances, our leisure time is increasing. Do we need to be educated in how to use this time sensibly?

The topic statement makes a rather unreal assumption. This is that the only effect of technology is to reduce working hours. Certainly, the old sixty-hour working week has been reduced to forty hours in most countries, and the tendency is downwards. This of course was due in part to the replacement of manpower by machine power although until very recently in the West, the far more potent factor was the growing power of the trades unions. Within the past ten years, however, this power has been demolished by a creeping world trade recession. Instead of being forced to increase wages and reduce working hours by threat of strike action, many businesses have either closed down or laid off massive number of workers.

In Britain this applies to all the main industrial concerns as well as smaller private businesses. Almost all coal mines have, or will shortly close down due to the switch to nuclear power and gas as fuels for electricity production, and the almost total disappearance of coal as the fuel for domestic heating. In offices, computers have decimated numbers of white-collar workers. Machinery and large-scale farming have had the same effect on agriculture. Robotry has revolutionized car assembly, and standardized containers have eliminated the need for manpower in the docks. Added to all this is a worldwide drop in consumer confidence, due to a reluctance to spend in view of widespread job insecurity. The result of all this in Britain is that unemployment stands at just under 3m, and is increasing.

So to say that our leisure time is increasing is certainly true, even though the underlying assumption presupposes an ideal situation in which the advance of technology has had the single effect of shortening working hours. It may be that some countries are in this happy situation. The working week may have gone down to say twenty-five hours without prejudice to job security or loss of income. Inflation is low. The GNP is adequate and the balance of payments sound. Morale remains high. The population has a good basic education. All that is required is to find the right balance between work and play. Most people are not naturally lazy, so generally speaking the incentive to use leisure time constructively in built-in. Read the whole essay
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