The Weekend

Up until the 1990's most Japanese workers resisted what was sometimes called the two day holiday or what we think of as the "weekend". Two days off each week seemed excessive,  that much leisure time had to be bad. Because the post war Japanese economy grew rapidly it took over forty years before anyone questioned the logic behind working so hard and noticed the diminishing returns in the society. The word "Karoshi" (death from over work) became part of the lexicon.

A lot of American kids who grew up in 1980's have a common experience of either being the children of a divorced family or knowing close friends that suffered through a family split up. Young Japanese adults have a similar parallel of distant "salarymen" Fathers who only came home on Sundays to sleep and parents emotionally detached from each other. It's easy to chart the activity on a factory floor or in an office but it's difficult to empirically evaluate the drag unhappiness has on a society. 

In a paradoxical way, after a certain point more work makes people less productive. It could be argued that the corporate bottom line benefits most from a society that knows how to take some time off. As the Japanese learned how to kick back on the weekends and work something close to an eight hour day, Japan has become a more creative economy. Instead of copying and modifying other people's products Japanese industry has become a leader in patents and cutting edge technologies. Also the leisure time in Japan has helped the country diversify it's economy and rely less on heavy industry.  

In America we still have a mild disdain for casual leisure even when activities and events show a four and five fold return on investment. Leisure is rarely seen as a serious industry like manufacturing.

I don't want sound cynical but it feels like little extra leisure around Christmas becomes marginally more acceptable if you're buying gifts.

Economists have questioned the value of paid vacation time. French, German and Scandinavian workers are entitled to three times as much paid vacation time as American workers. French, German and Scandinavian are all more productive than American workers -they produce more value added wealth over the cost of pay and benefits. 

Think of how nice it would be to spend another two weeks per year with your family and friends.




The picture on the top is from the Phoenixville Firebird Festival. This has been a yearly event for the last nine years. It started off small, I went to either the second or the third one and it was attended by a few hundred people. Last year 10,000 people came, this year it's estimated that 16,000 people was there. I think those estimates were correct because I could not find a parking space within half a mile of the event. 

Please pardon the crappy pictures, they don't do the event justice. There was a small parade, the lighting of the Firebird and a whole night of celebrations and parties through out the town.

There's three things I'd like to point out. One, everybody had a real good time and this created plenty of economic activity. Two, the investment in time and material is minimal  The arts community in Phoenixville is active but small. If their activities where charted like an industry, the arts community would be the largest generator of business in town. Three, many people who would have like to attended but could not. They could not attend because they work 60-80 hours a week. Many work two or more part-time jobs.

There's a lot of reasons why some people work too much and others can't find any employment at all. It almost creates an endless argument that prevents any action. Like any other economic situation this exists because it benefits somebody. I don't know why it is inconceivable that the system isn't there for the benefit of the majority of people instead of a select few.


I hope you all had a nice weekend. Be grateful if you didn't have to work  Laws establishing paid vacation, over time pay and a better working conditions help the whole society. Worker's money go into the local economy and help the merchants to prosper. People who have enough free time and money participate in their community. Invest in local arts and person leisure both are good for the soul as well as the bottom line.

One last thought on the importance of leisure, Issac Newton did not produce any of his monumental works in physics while he was on the job. Issac Newton had stop being a professor at Cambridge due to the plague and spent two years at his home in the village of Woolsthorpe.

As the old expression goes -all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. A whole country of Dull Jacks might end up making the greatest widgets in the world but would you really want to live there?