Worldly Philosophers is a famed attempt to make economics sexy. Mainly by skipping out of the math (which is cool by me; Warrant: The Current Debate had way too much math for my liking).

Author Robert L. Heilbroner, despite being an avowed socialist (or was for most of his career), wrote this passage, which absolutely infuriated me:

[Sir William Petty] was observing a fact that can still be remarked among the unindustrialized peoples of the world: a raw working force, unused to wagework, uncomfortable in factory life, unschooled to the idea of an ever-rising standard of living, will not work harder if wages rise; it will simply take more time off. The idea of gain, the idea that each working person not only may, but should, strive to better his or her material lot, is an idea that was quite foreign…”

Firstly, that whole passage reeks of colonial-minded paternalism.

And also, how is it that greater leisure time is not also part of an “ever-rising standard of living?”

It has been noted that those envy-inspiring images of Austrians conversing over coffee in the caffe’s of Vienna or of the French enjoying long lunches and leisurely glasses of wine are not a result of uniquely gallic or tuetonic culture. Or at least not how we usually think of it.

It’s about time. It’s about a culture that does not believe a people should have to work 60+ hours a week to support themselves and their families. Germans and even the Japanese, despite myths to the contrary, work fewer hours than Americans. When you have an extra three hundred and sixty hours a year (as the average German worker does), you can spend more time with family and enjoy leisurely activities.

I want to thank Heilbroner for introducing me to Thorstein Veblen (even his name is awesome! and descriptions of him washing his dishes with a garden hose aimed at the sink and showing up at his justifiably estranged wife’s door with a pair of socks are hilarious in a sad way), but I’m still fuming about that remark (which actually occurs very early in the book – before he even gets to Adam Smith).