Time for Things: Labor, Leisure, and the Rise of Mass Consumption
Productivity has increased steadily since the mid-twentieth century, yet Americans today work roughly as much as they did then: forty hours per week. We have witnessed, during this same period, relentless growth in consumption. This pattern represents a striking departure from the preceding century, when working hours fell precipitously. It also contradicts standard economic theory, which tells us that increasing consumption yields diminishing marginal utility, and empirical research, which shows that work is a significant source of discontent. So why do we continue to trade our time for more stuff? Time for Things offers a novel explanation for this puzzle with a theory that clarifies perplexing aspects of behavior under industrial capitalism – the urgency to spend earnings on things, the preference to own rather than rent consumer goods – as well as a variety of historical developments, including the coincident rise of mass consumption and the legitimation of wage labor.
