Spare Time? Does Spare Time Help or Hurt Us?


The link discusses indirectly one of the most profound bits of writing produced in recorded history. It was not the Bible. It was a tiny bit of Adam Smith's book, The Wealth of Nations. Adam Smith came to mind this morning as I read a headline in our local paper. The headline is the Governor here has called a Special Session of the legislature to pass yet another anti-abortion bill. All others, including one passed just a few weeks ago, have been tossed by the Iowa Supreme Court. If one is finally upheld women in this state will simply drive east to Illinois or north Minnesota. Both states have increased protection of abortion rights. The question then is why do Iowa legislators and Governor have so much idle time they can waste it on pointless legislation?

Adam Smith's book included several hypotheticals which I like to call parables. We usually associate the word parable with what the Bible claims are quotes from Jesus. There is a more general definition: A parable is a succinct didactic story in prose or verse that illustrates one or more lessons or principles. 

Adam Smith explained where wealth came from. Wealth includes the opportunity for time not used for survival. His book was denounced by the Catholic Church at the time because it gave an explanation for wealth different than that of the church. The church said wealth was a gift from God, (I suppose the tithe helped). Smith's parable was about making nails. One person making nails by himself could make about one per day. But if the tasks were divided up among a few people, each specializing in one task, a few people could make hundreds of nails per day. This increase in productivity raised the standard of living and workers had more leisure time.

More productivity meant workers had time to attend church. Division of labor was of benefit to the clergy instead of a detriment. 

Even with more leisure time, this time is not endless. Decisions have to be made as to the most important or the most pleasurable way to use that time. The State of Iowa has a huge problem that legislators need to spend time on. The State has more pigs per capita than any state in the U.S. To feed these pigs is needs huge amount of corn. Both corn and pigs produce externalities we call pollutants. With corn it is herbicides and insecticides that leach into the ground water. Pigs, of course, produce huge amounts of manure. There are almost no regulations on either. Cities are chasing treatment of this polluted water trying to keep up. Each year more lakes are closed for swiming. The Republican legislature and Governor could pass laws and hire staff to enforce the laws which would prevent most of this. They, however, are completely absorbed in anti-abortion religion and will spend no time fixing the water problem.

The lesson here is that higher productivity that produces more leisure can end up either harming or helping the future of humans on the planet. 

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