In Defense of Idleness

Modern society’s belief in the virtue of industry, productivity, or plain hard work is well ingrained in our psyche, and far predates capitalism. According to an old Arabian proverb, “the devil tempts all men, but idle men tempt the devil.” Ouch! If in any way representative of our opinion of human inactivity, it should hardly surprise that no sooner than Covid-19 forced idleness upon us all, we heard a chorus of voices keen to return to the status quo.

But from where did idleness obtain such a bad rap? While historians may differ on details, the development of Protestantism, and especially Puritanism, had plenty to do with it. Productivity was indeed pure virtue by traditional Calvinist standards, and Max Weber documented how the “Protestant ethic” made us more inventive and productive, helping usher in the period of industrial capitalism. It cannot be denied that productivity increases over about two centuries led to substantial gains in wages and living standards for much of the population in industrializing economies. But what is equally incontestable is that, since the early 1970s, the link between wages and productivity has been severed. (Economic Policy Institute, see chart) The result has been a dramatic increase in inequality over the past 40 years.

A colleague and I have started to address some of the reasons for this elsewhere, so I will not get into it here. But John Maynard Keynes, who famously prognosticated a future of abundance about a century after his own time, did not, as is clear from the following passage, anticipate the monumental reversal in our economic fortunes:

…for the first time since his creation [humans] will be faced with …[a] permanent problem – how to use freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure, …to live wisely and agreeably and well. (J.M. Keynes, Essays in Persuasion, 1930).

Keynes imagined that in some not-too-distant future humanity would enjoy abundant leisure time and an opportunity to craft out a truly meaningful and fulfilling life. He did not view idleness as a vice. His fatal error was not foreseeing, or at least seriously downplaying, the importance of consumer culture to the survival of capitalism. Our material wants would, over time, become social necessities. And our preeminent metric of economic success, GDP growth, is indifferent to social wellbeing. According to GDP, five dollars spent on rice, beef, or a rental apartment contributes no more than five dollars spent at the nail salon or the bar. Economists, in fact, are adamant that making such distinctions inappropriately introduces value judgments into the economic calculus.

As long as such thinking dominates policy and social discourse, we will act against our own interests by working extra hours to consume more useless and disposable stuff, instead of employing moderation and using our idleness to pursue non-material goals. The refrain that it is “human nature” to be selfish or acquisitive is one I frequently hear from colleagues and students alike. The narrative certainly helps justify an economic system that ostensibly rewards private enterprise (although not really).

But is it true? I would argue no. Rather than being inherent, traits such as greed or self-interest are, to the extent even present, corrupting artefacts of a capitalist culture. Most people are naturally inclined towards acts of generosity and selflessness. But it is in our nature as humans –as animals, in fact– to strive to make our lives easier or better. It is probably not much more than instinct to do so. But it would hold true irrespective of the government or economic system under which our society operated. And material consumption is but one of many possible dimensions of a “good” or “easy” life.

By compelling us to stay home, the Covid-19 health crisis has permitted us a new opportunity to contemplate the problem more deeply. The market for video games is thriving as people remain stuck at home, and viewing of live feeds of – of all things – chess is up more than four-fold in the past six months. And millions of more socially inclined Americans have lately gotten hooked on traditional board games. People are discovering that there is more to life than slaving away at work and trying to keep up with the Jones’s. Even sages of the past, not the least Plato, have maintained that play is indispensable to a life of learning. The point is that these and other diversions serve to remind us that we should seek a healthier balance between work and leisure.

While education and culture have long informed us about how to intelligently “use” our available time, it is undoubtedly still a work in progress. A system requiring many of us to work at jobs that (at best) make no productive contribution to society (about which more in a future post – I promise) in return for the privilege of taking exotic vacations or being able to afford a plethora of material commodities often produced overseas under extremely lax labor and environmental standards is an affront to human decency and dignity. Since a radical realization of this potentially threatens the viability of the present economic order, the Covid crisis could truly be seen as a portal to a superior future. It is perhaps for this reason that those who gain from business as usual are impatient to “restart” everything even while the global pandemic endures.