A widely shared definition of “freedom” is tough to agree upon, but until the 1930s, a broad group of Americans, from poets and architects to business owners and conservative politicians, shared a vision that capitalism would deliver on the hazy idea in a very concrete way: more and more leisure time for all.

In their view, economic progress would carve a path from the grueling factories of the Industrial Revolution to a not-so-distant future largely free from work. As the British economist John Maynard Keynes put it in 1930, “for the first time since his creation man will be faced with his real, his permanent problem — how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure which science and compound interest will have won for him.”

  • @Kecessa
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    410 months ago

    Yep, did that for years, had four full weeks of vacations + chose when I would have my days off for the 13 holidays but they were all paid 8h/day, I still took the hit on my paycheck to have 10 weeks of vacation a year!