27/04/2006 12:00:53 pm
After What Work? Some people say that we work too little and "have to" work more than we do. Otherwise, it is implicated, ever-more expensive public systems will not be properly financed. I don?t agree. I think everyone should work just as much or little as they want. You should work for your own sake, not for someone else, at least not someone you don?t choose freely to work to support. But if I freely choose to work to give my child a great life, that is my choice. And you should definitely not be forced by the state to work to support state systems.

That may be the kind of political incentives that the big state creates - which shows why a big state creates ever more force. But in a free society, where you get to keep most of your money and pay for your own welfare, nobody else has anything to do with how much you work. I do believe, however, that if people get to keep the fuits of their work, many will work more than today. But that is a different matter.

Anyway, this was a long introduction to a brief observation I made this morning: a restaurant that advertises low prices for beer during after work hours, defined as between 2 and 6 pm. Well, if that is the current after work-hour, perhaps people work quite little these days...