Another quick note on vacation time: It's telling, I think, that as you travel up the skills ladder, where workers have significantly more bargaining power, vacation time increases rapidly. Full time workers obviously get more than part time workers, but everything I've seen suggests white collar workers get significantly more time off than blue collar workers, and highly skilled knowledge workers -- arguably the most privileged class at the moment -- often get European-levels of time (if anyone knows of data breaking vacation days up by profession, I'd love to see it). So as workers are better able to craft job contracts in accordance with their preferences, paid leave rockets up. My hypothesis isn't that this happens because the less advantaged workers don't want the time, but because they don't have the leverage to make employers give it to them.
And also, yes, putting relatively more resources towards leisure will almost certainly reduce total productivity and thus pay. And I don't think liberals should have to reach for tenuous arguments about a well-rested workforce being a more productive workforce, and thus this policy paying for itself. Not everything has to enhance growth. It's actually quite crucial that we can argue for policies because they'd make for a better society rather than merely a more robust economy. Trading some income for some leisure is a perfectly appropriate choice -- but one you'll lose if you're always trying to justify the trade in terms of income.
Anyway, this is one of my perennial hobbyhorses, but I really think it's a big deal. The economy's absolute control over our political discourse really limits the room we have to argue for and enact possibly worthwhile policies.
