A widely shared definition of “freedom” is tough to agree upon, but until the 1930s, a broad group of Americans, from poets and architects to business owners and conservative politicians, shared a vision that capitalism would deliver on the hazy idea in a very concrete way: more and more leisure time for all.
In their view, economic progress would carve a path from the grueling factories of the Industrial Revolution to a not-so-distant future largely free from work. As the British economist John Maynard Keynes put it in 1930, “for the first time since his creation man will be faced with his real, his permanent problem — how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure which science and compound interest will have won for him.”
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As the British economist John Maynard Keynes put it in 1930, “for the first time since his creation man will be faced with his real, his permanent problem — how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure which science and compound interest will have won for him.”
In the glory days of the American labor movement, when unions were strong and wages rose alongside productivity, “organized workers could cash that out as more free time,” said Aaron Benanav, a professor of sociology at Syracuse University and author of Automation and the Future of Work.
Before the 40-hour week was law, Henry Ford implemented one in his factories in the 1920s to prevent exhaustion among his assembly line workers and open up more time for consumption and travel, while still paying enough to help grow the middle class he needed to purchase his cars.
One analysis made the case that reducing working hours could also help lower carbon emissions by cutting electricity use, commutes, and household consumption in the UK, a connection growing in popularity among advocates.
By providing a baseline of resources unconditionally — that is, to all citizens, whether or not they’re employed — people gain what the economist Albert Hirschman called an “exit option.” Not just the freedom to choose their flavor of misery, but the real possibility of saying no.
Some scholars believe that peasants of the late medieval period enjoyed more leisure time than today’s average American worker, largely because about half of the calendar year was occupied with festivals and celebrations.
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