If we were to stop and ask ourselves how our lives might be improved, one likely answer that might occur to us is that we should spend less time at work. At least that is what the statistics suggest. According to the OECD better life index, for example, the English-speaking countries – Australia, New Zealand, UK and US – all perform badly when it comes to ‘work-life balance’ (they are all in the bottom third), though they all do quite well in the overall rankings (all in the top half). The work-life balance score is calculated on the basis of ‘time devoted to leisure and personal care’ and ‘employees working very long hours’. So, if you live in one of these countries, and are an average member of it, a major drag in your quality of life will be lack of time for leisure and personal care and too much time at work.  

Small wonder then that the recent introduction by a New Zealand financial services company of a four-day week should be greeted with such enthusiasm. The UK Green Party, which had already committed to a four-day week in its 2015 election manifesto, has also just resolved to introduce a ‘Free-Time Index’ that would measure the total amount of leisure time available - a sort of non-work equivalent to GDP. Since the Free-Time Index would be a better indicator of overall quality of life than GDP, growth in it rather than GDP, the Greens argue, should be a higher economic priority. We need a reorientation of economic policy so that we get the right balance between work and leisure, a balance that the four-day week and Free-Time Index will help to achieve.

This broadening of the terms by which we measure economic performance is to be welcomed. Leisure is clearly no less an important source of goods, the things we want from life, than work is. And certainly, GDP is a hopelessly inadequate measure of success in the production and enjoyment of these things. We need an alternative set of reference points, and available leisure time, radical though it is, is one such candidate.

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"We need a reorientation of economic policy so that we get the right balance between work and leisure."

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