Work-Life Balance Does Not Produce Exceptional Prosperity

Why the seduction of socialism is always short-lived

This topic has been burning a hole in my conscious and I must extinguish the flame before it becomes a threat to sobriety. Our business communities are obsessed with creating work-life balance and they claim that it is improving productivity. For many years, the United States enjoyed the number one spot on the productivity chart. (https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?DataSetCode=PDB_LV#) But a funny thing happened to the US on its way to a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage.

The United States caught the work-life balance bug and now many companies are making accommodations to productivity for the sake of this undefinable and elusive spectre. Not long ago, an American worker could work a 9-5 shift and still complete the task of getting an oil change after work. Even banks, notorious for maintaining "banker's hours" opened at 8 AM and closed at 6 PM thus allowing for services that uninterrupted the average workday. A couple could put in a long day at the office and still catch a late dinner at a restaurant on the way home from work. And now, because of work-life balance initiatives, those days are now in the rear-view mirror.

I recently replaced a cracked windshield, and the shops hours were 9AM-5PM. This task required me, and a colleague not only to miss one hour of work for the drop off, but another for the pickup before 5pm. Banker's have gleefully returned to their old, coveted hours and best of luck to anyone looking for a live loan officer at your local branch. That person is now seated comfortably at their home tipping the scales much further towards their life versus work part of the balance equation. And finally, try making a dinner reservation at 9 Pm at your local restaurant. If you get one accepted, you will be sternly warned about when the kitchen closes, and should you wish to linger over a nightcap, you may also be treated to staff noisily putting chairs up around you.

The governments' "shut down the economy" reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic added much needed fuel to the slow burning fire that had been consuming American productivity over the past several decades. It is hard to stay at number one for the long haul. Keeping up the discipline to hold the top spot is exhausting and every number one seat eventually falls. I pick on governments quite a bit and it is deserving as they often jettison the good for the sake of political expediency. But when it comes right down to it, governments reflect the will of the people. When a government produces economy killing initiatives with very little push back, they have an effective "green light" from the citizenry to do so. So, if government didn't initiate the work-life productivity killing movement, who did?

The socialists. The work- life balance movement grew out of the one place where the socialists walked the walk and talked the talk, the work-life balance issue came from academia. Well compensated and tenured professors and teachers blessed with 180 worker days per year contracts is where this phenomenon arose. Instead of realizing that their cushy lifestyle was a gift from the status quo, they sought to impose their lifestyle on the community at large. The socialist academics, while living large at the exaggerated expense of hard-working parents, instructed their charges that work was a form of capitalist abuse. People who work in businesses were called "workaholics" and were castigated as being greedy. "Live to work" was bad, "work to live" was good. All this has affected productivity and the United States has been slowly receding since the turn of the century.

The socialist has learned that radical change requires great fortitude and a lot of guns. They also discovered that radical change that occurs too quickly consumes the goose (productivity) the lays golden eggs (economy.) Therefore, socialist have accepted the slow-burn method of conversion. This managed progressive decline does not involve the radical move of “storming of the Bastille,” but instead, slowly chips away at the fortress brick by brick. It is like the old saying goes, give a radical a fish, he eats for a day, teach a radical how to fish, he eats for decades.

The United States’ slow march towards socialism has been going on for some time now. Socialism hides behind emotionally popular but economically disastrous legislation. The passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2014 was a major victory for the progressive socialists and has proven to provide neither affordability nor efficient care. President Biden’s recent “Inflation Reduction Act” will do nothing to reduce inflation but will further the socialists’ cause by weakening the American economy through excessive regulation and high taxation. The push for work-life balance is merely the latest “brick” to be chipped away from the citadel as it will, in the end, neither increase work productivity nor enhance one’s life.

Productivity matters because the higher a nation’s ranking the higher the standard of living. And it does not just mean nicer homes, cars and vacations, higher standard of living yields the time and resources for great charities, music, arts, and entertainment. High standards of living allow the mind to contemplate the ethereal and to give due thanks for Her beautiful blessings.

There is a correlation between high productivity and high standard of living. What the socialist teachers omit from their lectures is that taxing productivity necessary reduces standard of living. And, with lower standards of living, we don’t get nice stuff. I am reminded of this from the following clip from the movie Trumbo, (

.) This might be one of the few times Hollywood ever got it right. In this clip, Trumbo states, “That’s where the radical and the rich guy make a perfect combination. The radical may fight with the purity of Jesus, but the rich guy wins with the cunning of satin.” For far too long the endowment rich universities have been creating radical socialist while conniving effortlessly and unchecked behind walls of ivy.  

Why does not being number one matter, why can't we work less hours and not stress ourselves out? We certainly can and apparently are working less. Many European countries log less weekly work hours than the US. But there is a tradeoff, and it is the unspoken rule of socialism. That being, socialism does not transfer a nation’s productivity into a higher standard of living, it merely transfers one person’s productivity to his neighbor. And, to that end, the work-life balance movement will prevail only as long as Boxer and Benjamin are willing to pull the productivity lacking cart.