Time for Bread and Roses

By John de Graaf, AlterNet. Posted December 20, 2004.

No doubt about it, the next few years will not be easy ones for American progressives. The Republican Party's perceived "mandate" is likely to produce increased international belligerence and militarism, further attacks on the social safety net, increasing inequality and sharply weakened environmental protection. With so many fronts to fight back on, it will be tempting to concentrate on stopping the bleeding.

But while necessary, such reactive "tourniquet" politics are not sufficient to begin turning America around. It's high time that progressives find ways to inspire moderates. This doesn't mean "moving to the center;" it means listening to what matters to Americans and offering new, imaginative solutions – proactive, "strategic initiatives," as George Lakoff calls them in his new, thought-provoking best-seller, "Don't Think of an Elephant!"

So, where to begin? What kinds of things that matter most to Americans have progressives failed to listen and respond to? In my view, "time poverty" ranks near the top. Back in July, during an appearance on PBS' NOW with Bill Moyers, Republican pollster and strategist Frank Luntz observed that a majority of "swing" voters were working women with young children. Luntz said his focus groups revealed that "lack of free time" is the number one issue with these voters. "The issue of time matters to them more than anything else in life," Luntz declared.

Luntz has identified an issue that could be dynamite. Most Americans, not only mothers, feel increasingly time crunched. The Wall Street Journal confirmed that Americans are working 20% longer today than in 1970, while work-time has declined in other industrial countries. A recent poll released by the Center for a New American Dream found 88% of Americans agreeing that "working too many hours results in not having enough time to spend with families." Half say they're willing to sacrifice some pay for more time.

Another poll commissioned by Hilton Hotels found that only 23 percent of Americans come to work refreshed on Mondays. Our vacations are disappearing – a recent Harris survey found that 37% of women earning less than $40,000 a year (and 28% of all working women) receive no paid vacation at all. On average, Americans work nearly nine weeks (350 hours) more each year than western Europeans.

American public policies protecting our family and personal time fall far short of those in other countries. A study released in last June by the Harvard School of Public Health, covering 168 of the world's nations concluded that "the United States lags dramatically behind all high-income countries, as well as many middle- and low-income countries when it comes to public policies designed to guarantee adequate working conditions for families." The study found that:

• 163 of 168 countries guarantee paid leave for mothers in connection with childbirth. 45 countries offer such leave to fathers. The U.S. does neither.
• 139 countries guarantee paid sick leave. The U.S. does not.
• 96 countries guarantee paid annual (vacation) leave. The U.S. does not.
• 84 countries have laws that fix a maximum limit on the workweek. The U.S. does not.
• 37 countries guarantee parents paid time off when children are sick. The U.S. does not.

In a new study [PDF], the National Association of Working Women documents what happens to workers without paid sick days. Many report losing a job when a child breaks an arm, or being forced to serve food while sick with the flu. Half of all American workers and three out of four low-wage workers have no paid sick leave. Only one in six part-timers has any paid sick leave.

Is it any wonder that stress and burnout is rampant in America, and that working women with children feel as Luntz says they do? Time is a family value. Marriage, friendship, children, community involvement, environmental stewardship and civic participation all suffer from our lack of free time. But what can be done about this burning issue? "Right now," Frank Luntz says, "no one has created an agenda, what I would call the Free Time Agenda. So it's up for grabs."

Neither American political party has addressed the issue in any serious way. In campaign speeches, President Bush said he'd "help American families keep more of something they never have enough of – time: time to play with their children; time to go to Little League games or Girl Scout meetings; time to care for elderly parents; time to go to class to improve their lives."

But what Bush has actually proposed – replacing overtime pay with "comp" time – leaves the decision regarding when workers must put in hours to their employers, and is likely to encourage, not discourage, more employer demands for overtime work. On the other hand, until now progressives haven't offered any "Free Time Agenda" at all, thus conceding an essential issue to their opponents.

So what might a real agenda for free time look like? A new "It's About Time" coalition including the organizations Take Back Your Time, Work to Live, and Mothers Ought to Have Equal Rights, has proposed a six-point "Time to Care" public policy initiative that would:

John de Graaf is the editor of Take Back Your Time, and National Coordinator of the Take Back Your Time campaign.

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