Congratulations - You Have 5 Hours More Per Week Than Your Parents (and 40 More Hours Than Your Great Grandparents) -

Congratulations – You Have 5 Hours More Per Week Than Your Parents (and 40 More Hours Than Your Great Grandparents)

Gregg Easterbrook points out that Jesse Ausubel and Arnulf Grubler of Rockefeller University have proven that the typical hours spent working has been declining almost in a perfect line for 15 consecutive decades.

John Robinson of the University of Maryland and Geoffrey Godbey of Penn State University have done research showing that “Americans now have more free time than at any point in the nation’s history.” They calculate that since 1960, the average American has gained 5 hours of free time per week even after adjusting for women entering the work force.

The pathetic part? Their research shows most Americans use this free time to watch more television.

Compared to 1880, according to University of Chicago professor Robert Fogel, the average man has 40 hours of relaxation time per week (e.g., come home, take off your shoes, and sit on the couch or anything else that doesn’t require you to be working to support yourself). The average woman has 30 more hours per week. Much of this is due to the fact that we have laundry machines and dishwashers, power tools and electronics, which do the work for us.

All this bunk about the middle class shrinking? It has literally never been so good in the history of the world. We are sitting at the apex of a great civilization, folks. So why are people so unhappy? Other research has shown that happiness is the result of being richer than your neighbor. It’s all about having more than your friends and family, not your absolute standard of living. That is completely irrational.