Lots of interesting stuff in the latest Pew Poll, but from the point of view of my personal obsessions, their questions around life priorities are particularly fascinating. Wresting "free time" clocks in at the very top, above career, above children, above marriage, above religion, above wealth. Now, it's probably not that adults really value leisure time above their families and their god. So the impressive showing of leisure time suggests that that's where Americans feel particularly squeezed and out of control -- that's their top prioritiy because it's the one they don't know how to achieve. And that's a shame. We're a rich society. We could afford to guarantee our workers paid vacation, we could afford to offer paid sick days, we could afford to make it easier to live a life in accordance with our preferences, rather than constantly fearing that actually taking necessary or desired time off will tarnish your reputation around the workplace.I've written before on the more theoretical arguments as to how our culture, and in particular our economy, overvalues the acquisition of stuff over leisure, so rather than recap those arguments, I'll just link to the piece. But the Pew Poll is powerful confirmation that something strange really is going on. Even I, for all my interest in the topic, wouldn't have thought Americans would place time above family and religion on the priorities list. CHART OF THE DAY: WHAT A WORKER WANTS.
Lots of interesting stuff in the latest Pew Poll, but from the point of view of my personal obsessions, their questions around life priorities are particularly fascinating. Wresting "free time" clocks in at the very top, above career, above children, above marriage, above religion, above wealth. Now, it's probably not that adults really value leisure time above their families and their god. So the impressive showing of leisure time suggests that that's where Americans feel particularly squeezed and out of control -- that's their top prioritiy because it's the one they don't know how to achieve. And that's a shame. We're a rich society. We could afford to guarantee our workers paid vacation, we could afford to offer paid sick days, we could afford to make it easier to live a life in accordance with our preferences, rather than constantly fearing that actually taking necessary or desired time off will tarnish your reputation around the workplace.I've written before on the more theoretical arguments as to how our culture, and in particular our economy, overvalues the acquisition of stuff over leisure, so rather than recap those arguments, I'll just link to the piece. But the Pew Poll is powerful confirmation that something strange really is going on. Even I, for all my interest in the topic, wouldn't have thought Americans would place time above family and religion on the priorities list. 
