Do Americans Work Too Hard?

418 Words2 Pages
Do Americans work too hard? One view of the question “Do Americans work too hard?” is a simple no. A brief argument using basic economic concepts will demonstrate this. A look at a production possibilities curve for the US with 6 percent unemployment shows that the country is not realizing its full potential. If Americans suddenly started working 35 hours instead of 40 (a 12.5 percent decrease in total hours), it would seem to suggest that there would be some sort of proportional decrease in production. This would affect the overall GDP, and lower the quality of everyone’s lives. Perhaps we would create a condition resulting in even more unemployment. On the other hand if we worked even harder, we may be able to shift the PPC to increase economic growth. This creates opportunities for business; possibly increasing the GDP, lowering unemployment and improving the quality of life for all. With a growing population, the US can not afford to have the country’s economic growth stagnate. A look at the question of “HOW” the market produces goods (utilizing a 40 hour work week per worker) urges us to leave the market mechanism alone. Working an extra 5 hours a week seems a small price to pay to avoid a market failure. The government would almost certainly have to intervene to prevent massive layoffs caused by companies’ loss of profits. Even government intervention could not guarantee a failure here. But wait; let’s take another look at the same production possibilities curve. At some point on the curve we reach the point of diminishing returns. We could work harder and still not dramatically increase production. Perhaps by working less, we will not really affect production to a large extent. The optimum solution may just be a 35 hour work week. The upside to this would be economic growth, a better quality of life for most, and a chance at
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