Михаил Попов - Working Day Reduction as the Ground of Modern Economic Development

The Rate of Free Time of the Society in Modern Conditions

Calculations of the rate of free time of the society suppose solving several problems as theoretical so problems connected to finding required statistics.

First of all, it is necessary to determine the total duration of social activities not connected to satisfaction of physical needs.

According to the data of time budgets of the USA, in 2007 all time of self-care (sleeping, washing, etc.) of persons aged 15 or over was 9.33 hours a day, and all time of eating was 1.24 hours what made 10.57 hours in total. Let us accept that these data are characteristic of not only 2007 but of 1993, and they are extended to the other examined countries. Thus, time of satisfaction of these needs is 44% of 24 hours, and the part of social activities time is 56%.

In principle, the ratio can be converted to the time fund of the society in general. According to it, total time of the social life activity is measured by means of multiplying the general annual time fund of the society’s life – the product of population by 8760 hours – by 0.56.

Still, it is not correct to identify the data for adult people and the time budget of children. New-born children are fully in the grip of physical needs until a definite period. Preschool aged children have longer sleeping time than adults and so on. To take into account this age specificity it is appropriate to use the following procedure: time additionally spent by children on satisfaction of physical needs is subtracted from total time of the social life activity measured the way above. Let us accept that the first time makes 3% of total time: from an approximate part of children no more than 1 year of population and specificities of preschool children’s life activity.

The total value of labour expenditures, directed toward satisfaction of social needs (in the modern context it is paid labour), and labour in housekeeping (unpaid labour) allows calculating total time of nonproduction activities: by means of subtracting the value from the time fund of social activities of the society.

There is a problem of differentiation of nonworking time and free time of the society. For example, in poor families children cannot work, but under pressure of want they hardly have free time what is also true for unemployed people in many ways. Elderly people’s social activities decrease what changes also the modification of their nonworking time. Nonworking time, by the essence, is wasted if a person is in the grip of bad habits, etc.

To our mind, when calculating the rate of free time of the society, first, general mass of nonworking time should be used. The value of this time is one of the expressions of social production progress. People can objectively dispose of this time. The way this possibility is realized is beyond the economic research.

Differentiation of the potential value of free time, an upper bound of which is nonworking time, and the value realized for goals of free development gives the basis for distinguishing the nominal and actual rate of free time of the society. The nominal index will be used in our research.

The rate of free time for one of another country is determined by correlating total values of nonproduction and production activities. The value of this rate for several countries is at table 11.

As it follows from the table, the rate of free time of the society many times exceeds 1 in all the examined countries. In other words, with the achieved labour productivity the modern society is able to spend the main part of its time on fulfilling activities not being immediately production, at that, the level of material well-being per capita increases. It means expansion for free development of all members of the society.

Table 11

The Rate of Free Time of the Society in Several Economically Developed Countries (in 1993 and 2007)

Though in all the cases the rate of free time is many times more than 1, at the same time, differentiation of the value of this index is seen too. So, France, the FRG, Sweden, and the USA have rate 5 and more, Canada has a little bit less than 5.0, Italy has 4.30, and Korea has 3.84.

The sequence of countries reflects, on the whole, difference in levels of their social labour productivity. But France, leading in the level of this rate, yields to the USA in labour productivity, however, it should be taken into consideration that the difference in the value of the first index for these two countries is not significant, moreover, the volume of domestic labour in the European country was calculated approximately.

Changing in the level of the rate of free time of the society was mainly explained by the dynamics of the paid labour volumes (it was supposed that saving of labour in housekeeping did not take place). It corresponds to the key role of social production in realization of this saving.

It should be mentioned that during the analyzed fifteen years changing in the rate of free time was less significant in percentage terms than, for example, the volume of the social product. Perhaps, if saving of working time in the sector of domestic labour could manage to be taken into account, tempos of this changing would be higher. Still, this period is not so long for large-scaled redistribution of social activities between the main spheres of the social life.

Tempos of changing of the rate of free time of the society significantly differed in the examined countries during the analyzed period. The highest tempos were in France, the FRG, Korea and the USA; in Italy and Sweden they were significantly lower; and Canada’s tempos were probably negative.

Owing to the differentiation of the tempos, the state of the countries, depending on the rate value of free time, changed. In 1993 Sweden was in the third place and Canada was in the fourth place. In 2007 Sweden took the fourth place and Canada took the fifth place, the FRG improved its positions. The irregularity in the dynamics of forming conditions for economic development is seen.

This irregularity is characteristic for tempos of economic growth too. Certainly, it acts as a regularity of development of the modern economy what questions the rectitude of the thesis “on lagging forever” of those countries which yield to leaders during one or another period.

Increasing in the nominal rate of free time of the society, expanding for development of abilities of all members of the society, is an objective prerequisite for reduction of essential inequality depending on volumes of available free time. The way this prerequisite is realized many times depends on the modification of nonproduction social activities.

Tendencies in Utilization of the Nonproduction Activities Fund of the Society

In the nonproduction sphere of the society there are several sectors that influence differently on formation of prerequisites for development of all members of the society. Trade (wholesale and retail) is one of the elements of the services sphere.

By means of trade produced benefits come to productive and personal consumption what makes a prerequisite for satisfaction of material needs of members of the society.

Strictly speaking, many processes that continue production in the circulation sphere (pre-packing, packaging, making semi-finished products, etc.) take place in trade. Labour expenditures of this kind are a sort of production labour expenditures. As the statistics do not mark them out, all labour in the trading sphere will be included in rendering services (actually, this supposition leads to the overrated rate of free time of the society).