[at-l] On Topic Quote

[Malcolm Fuller <mfuller@somtel.com> (Malcolm Fuller)]

>> If the reduced number of hours in a French work week is
>> such an obvious good, then why is it necessary for their
>> government to sustain it by force of law?

> Well, because they're FRENCH...

>>> Those are exactly the problems MacKaye detailed in his
>>> Regional Planning article...

>> True, but had he carried out his plan according original
>> specifications people wouldn't have come.

> That's not the point.  The point is that MacKaye recognized
> it and proposed a solution.  He wasn't alone in that - lots
> of people recognized it and proposed solutions; none of which
> ever came to pass on a wide scale.

My point is that the scope of MacKaye's vision was based
on a false premise of there being a problem in the first
place.

>> Yet, given the choice between taking leisure time and
>> working toward greater personal affluence, most people
>> choose the latter. There is nothing to prevent individuals
>> in the States from living lives of greater leisure so long
>> as they're willing to take the ordinate hit on their
>> standard of living.

> I am inclined to agree with you, but must point out that
> all of that is highly subjective.  Each person's definition
> of 'standard of living' can be very different.  In many
> ways, my leisure IS my standard of living.

Fair enough, that was a poor choice of phrase. When I lived
in Canada, I used to argue the very same point to the Maple-
leafed Sneetches whenever they equated a top spot on the
UN's Human Development Index listing with being "the best
place in the world to live."

-MF