Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'Leisure'

Entertainment as leisure

Americans on average spend 470 minutes, or 7.83 hours, a day with digital media. For example, people watched “The Office” for over 57 billion minutes in 2020, and another favorite, “Grey’s Anatomy” held viewership for over 39 billion minutes in 2020. Continue Reading...

Work too much? You might have the ‘Proletariat Touch’

Two weeks ago, a group of scholars from around the world gathered in Notre Dame, Indiana for Holy Cross College’s Labor and Leisure Conference. Among the many present was scholar Joseph Zahn, who presented his paper, “The Status of Leisure in the Human Person: Whether Leisure is a Virtue?” Continue Reading...

7 Figures: American Time Use Survey

Every year the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), which measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socializing. Continue Reading...

Play Hard, Work Harder

Over at Think Christian, Aron Reppmann asks whether there is a distinctly Christian way to vacation: “We have learned to approach our work as vocation, a calling from God, but what about our leisure?” Continue Reading...

A World Without Work: Where Civilization Slowly Melts Away

In his latest column, Ross Douthat contemplates what a world without work might look like: Imagine, as 19th-century utopians often did, a society rich enough that fewer and fewer people need to work — a society where leisure becomes universally accessible, where part-time jobs replace the regimented workweek, and where living standards keep rising even though more people have left the work force altogether. Continue Reading...

Work, Leisure, and the Search for Daily Meaning

Over at AEIdeas, James Pethokoukis challenges our attitudes about work and leisure by drawing a helpful contrast between economists John Maynard Keynes and Deirdre McCloskey. First, he points to “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren,” in which Keynes frames our economic pursuits as a means to a leisurely end: Thus 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, to live wisely and agreeably and well. Continue Reading...

Leisure and Work, Art and Culture

There have been some engaging challenges to the view presented of work and its relationship to culture and civilization over the past few weeks (here, here, and here). I hope to post a more substantive response to some of the comments in the next few days. Continue Reading...