Farting around (and "economic rationality")
Farting around (and “economic rationality”):
Will Wilkinson’s thoughts on the (alleged) European taste for leisure over work had me scurrying over to my bookshelf to find a copy of Marx’s Grundrisse . Will surmises that the real reason that Europeans work shorter hours than Americans is that European taxes are too high. After all, anyone who is “economically rational” would surely work more if only the rewards were there, wouldn’t they? So goes human nature according to libertarians. Well, no Will, they might work even less if they could satisfy their consumption needs with fewer hours at the grindstone. As Kurt Vonnegut says , human beings “are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you any different.”
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more over there. but, i think that farting around has been my primary occupation for years, but then…. i do pretty well when i’m just farting around with stuff.
