Advancement in Technology and High Leisure Hours - Essay Example

ECONOMICS OF LEISURE By Introduction When Adams defined economics as wealth of nations, the purpose was to account for the resources that can benefit its citizens. It means that with the advancement of technology, the populace should have more economic benefits than before. Economic growth should be accompanied by enhanced living standards. Betrand Rusell, one of great English philosophers praised idleness and in one of his writings he held that if society was to be managed in a better way than citizens would only need to work for four hours a day. He believed that such hours will accord people the required necessities and the elementary life comfort. He believed that the remaining hours could be in pursuit of writing, printing and innovation. In 1930s, John Maynard Keynes, one of the neo-classical economists predicted that people would only need to work for less than 15 hours in a week by 2030. 84 years after Keynes prediction, it appears that people are working even more hours with the advancement of technology. Questions asked by neo classical economists are whether the trends conform to economic priori as adopted by the classical. The discussion in this paper will negate the notion that advancement in technology associated with economic growth results into high leisure hours. It will also discuss the reasons as to why this happens. Discussions Economic development which entails the advancement of nation’s institutions has leisure at its focal point. Most nations that are on the take off mainly focus on the economic growth and not development. The developed countries on other hand are mainly focused on enhancing the living standards of its people. It means that leisure remains at the focal point. Despite this, people from these countries still have reduced number of leisure hours. There are however a number of reasons that causes increase and reduced working and leisure hour respectively (Gary 2007). Firstly, the development of technology entails the advancement of consumer goods. Most people are often amazed by new technological advancement such as personal computer, digital camera, internet among other technologies. Therefore, the only way people must maintain this level of technology is to work more hours (Cooke 1994). Research has proved that people will rarely stop working when they have free time, instead they will yearn to get more. As human makes money, there will be a need to make more. Most people have realised that working faster will give them an opportunity to make more money. Through this, most people have realized that their ability of making more money can only happen when they work extra hours. (Koshar 2002) most people enjoy material possessions and materials and the associated status. When technology was adopted, most people asked themselves what gives them more joy, happy and fulfilment (Vickerman 1995). When people realized that new technology was giving them ample leisure time, they yearned to expand their income base. Success in most economies is measured by monetary capacity of an individual, his/her material possessions which will give them high status. Therefore as a result of this urge, people will always try to spend well any minute they get. Apart from normal office work, most people often opt for freelancing which helps them generate extra income (Veal and Rob 1998: p71). Most citizens argue that depending on salary and working on normal hours will make them have an okay life which is not the intention of most people. In fact with continuous technology advancement, most people even work when they travel. The advancement of technology led to the development of air transport and electric transport which is faster as compared to what used to exist. This advancement should be translated into treating hours which someone would have spent travelling. Unfortunately, the reduced hours have been translated to working in order to expand their income base (Edward 2006). Another reason is the continuous persistent increase in the prices of goods and services. The growth of technology has seen high level of innovations. As the economy grows and new products being manufactured, the income of people has gone high, at the same time, the process of the goods has shoot up (Samuels 1998). The levels of government taxation (both state and federal) have gone high. It means that increase in income have been substituted by increase in government taxes and prices of goods and services. With continuous upsurge in the prices of goods and services, most people are left with no option but to work extra hours (Dickinson 2006: p.441). Most people often prefer spending their leisure hours involving in social activities. Most of these social activities require money which means that one must try to get extra income. Touring other parts of the world is quite expensive and requires a lot of money that can be hardly raised by people from their salaries (Neulinger 1991). Citizens are therefore left with minimal option rather than to work extra hours to raise money. Even those who go for holidays often carry with them gadgets (products of technological growth) to help in monitoring how their businesses are performing. They still; give direction and if something bad happens, they are forced to travel back to solve the issue immediately (Gratton and Peter 1988). During the 1980’s the dream of most economies changed to the ‘me’ argument. The communal growth which enhanced moral growth was lost during the past 3 decades. This kind of selfish thinking made most people only to focus on what benefits them and not other people. According to them the main concern was how they can enrich themselves. The appreciation of the fact that one must deal with his economic challenges, most people have no option but instead to work extra hours. Technology enhances the growth of the economy but at the same time, one can only feel the growth when his income increases more than the prices of the goods. Per capita of an economy can improve in proportionate given the fact that there is unequal distribution of wealth and resources. Working extra hours will help in reducing possible existing inequalities (Larson 1993: p.573). There is also the fast changing state of the economy. The economy has changed from the pseudo-booming to the reality of depressions and later resurgent growth. The depression witnessed in 1930s, 1980s and later the collapse of Lehman brothers in 2008 are some of the reasons for people to work hard. The instability of the economy means that people must work more hours when they are active to secure their future (Winston 1986). It is also a fact that most of the developed economies have their operations run for 24 hours as compared to those of developing economies. In the US, the economy of the 80s was the beginning of some of the serious economic turmoil’s and spirals which were as a result of the policies adopted by Reagan. The season saw one of the high tax cuts with high increase in government spending over perceived and seen government deficit that was seen. Most of these programs were blamed on technological advancement developed by Regan with the view of enhancing technological advancement to build missiles during the cold war. This led to crisis with the fall of 1990s. It is during this time that most people started having more than one job to have ends meet (Kaun 1999: p.87). Automation and technology provides better services as compared to the past. The innovations and inventions have positively participated in enhancing the country’s Gross Domestic Product. Without technology, most economies will actually crush. Most of government and private operations depend a lot on technology. Unfortunately the benefits accrued must come with a sacrifice. The machines which are as a result of technology must be serviced and maintained quite often than before. This means that people must spend more time as compared to life without technology. Despite the fact that they help in doing most of the work, most of these gadgets must be operated by human beings to ensure that they are working properly. Leisure time therefore is the price which must be paid by people. There are a myriad of economic uncertainties which people face. To a number of people, their marginal propensity to consume is mainly to provide some of the human fundamentals. Continuous growth of technology has been associated with some of the diseases like increased chances of getting different cancer diseases. The comprehensive government insurance cover doesn’t include some of these diseases which are quite expensive to treat. Besides, it is also expensive taking private insurance that caters for some of these diseases. Most people are very careful with their lives. Besides having healthy foods and products which are not radioactive are very expensive. The best option is to cushion oneself by increasing their chances of getting more income. Therefore they are forced to sacrifice their leisure hours in order to raise more income (Tribe 2005). during the industrial revolution, there was higher economic growth that made people work low hours. This later changed as people realized that it was necessary to have more income. There was need to have more income as the process of goods continuously increased. It dawned to millions of people that they could seldom enjoy their higher incomes. Most experts are often required to work extra hours given that there are focal points, which they are the main trustees. For instance, securities for online platforms are entrusted with very few people. With the associated risks, the entrusted group must also ensure that necessary research is conducted to reduce any chances of vulnerabilities. It is therefore clear that people value having money as compared to leisure (Tisdell 2006). Conclusion Economics of leisure presents a lot of controversies. Remaining financially stable going by the current economic times calls for hard and smart work. The continuous increased demand for the technological goods, the fiscal idiocy policy of the 190s and the ‘me’ behaviour as discussed above are some of the factors that resulted in the nullification of the reduced leisure hours. The views of classical economists have been changed over time going by various complexities and changing needs of human beings. It is no doubt that the economic growth and development in most economists have been witnessed. Most leisure economists still argue that economic development cannot be validated without right working hours. Economic success is not only measured by the monetary benefits one gets but instead the amount of leisure hours one spends to enjoy the money. This paper also holds that technology should not complicate the lives of people but instead make it easier for people to perform some activities. Therefore people must be able to control the working of machines and not let machines control what they do. In a nutshell, this paper disagrees with the notion by Keynes that with advancement in technology, people will have more leisure time; instead it holds that leisure hours will continue to decrease with improvement in technology. References List Cooke, Andrew. 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Williamstown, MA.: Williams College, Dept. of Economics, 1986. Read More