[clarebear]

"There is a bit of a contradiction, Hunnicutt admits, between the dream of leisure and preparing students for new business opportunities, but he believes that an experience industry might encourage a new paradigm. If better and better experiences are out there, there will be more and more demand for free time in which to enjoy them. "It’s the good old-fashioned free market," he says. "I have no trouble with that. We are in the business of reawakening the American dream.""

I find this argument to be false in that I don't think people work long hours because they can't think of anything they would rather be doing.

I wonder if "work" hours are not shorter because culture dictates it, so many people shift their habits to surf the web (i.e. leisure activities) while at work. Not that they wouldn't rather meet with friends, paint a picture or whatever, but they can surf facebook from their cube.

[asgard1024]

> I wonder if "work" hours are not shorter because culture dictates it, so many people shift their habits to surf the web (i.e. leisure activities) while at work.

I think you're right and this is similar to what David Graeber wrote somewhere. In former communist countries, the working class people actually had more leisure at work, except they had to pretend they don't. This was probably part of the reason why these systems were so economically inefficient, compared to first world countries.