EMPTY HOURS:

THE MYTH OF 'BUSY BRITAIN': According to a new report, Britons have plenty of
free time - the question is what we are doing with it. (Jennie Bristow, sp!ked)

The 2004 edition of British Lifestyles, a major annual report produced by the market analyst group Mintel, pours scorn on the widespread idea that Britons are pushed for leisure time.

'Mintel's research does not paint a picture of a hectic and overly busy way of life', explained Peter Ayton, the organisation's chief statistician. 'Instead, we are a nation quite content with our lot and if anything, with more than enough time on our hands. We do not live in a cash rich, time poor society after all, but in one that is both cash rich and time rich.'

The survey, of over 2000 adults, categorised one third of people as 'Busy Enough' - who find time to relax despite their busy lives - and 30 per cent as 'Time Rich', who feel they have time during the week and weekends to do what they want. Only eight per cent of people were classified as 'Time Short', and this group was mostly made up of working mothers. [...]

The real target of the complaint about long-hours culture is not that people have to work too much, but that they have to work at all, taking them away from the more relaxing, indulgent pursuits of leisure-time. Which is a rather bizarre appreciation of the role of work in a society that is still (despite policymakers' attempts to wish it otherwise) subject to the norms of capitalism. [...]

As for the vast majority of the population, which freely admits to having quite enough time thank you very much, there seems no basis at all to the myth of Busy Britain. Indeed, there seems more of a basis to a discussion about whether it is actually a good thing for a nation to have so much 'free' time on its hands. A dynamic society, after all, does not sit around eating pre-prepared broccoli, stocking up on OTC pharmaceuticals for imaginary ailments, and trying to find something on telly (there is now one TV set per household inhabitant) to fill the chasm where hard work and hard socialising used to be.

Mintel's survey gives some indication about how today's consumer society can cut out the crap, freeing us up to do something less boring instead. Now we just need to work out what that something less boring should be.

Listening to folks whine about how much less free time they have than their forebears does make one wish for the power to transport people in time.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 2, 2004 3:35 PM