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COMMENTARY
COMMENTARY Is Keynes’s 15-hour workweek possible today?
by David Suzuki
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Shorter workweeks, besides being good for the environment, also give people better lives by offering flexibility and increased vacation time. Photo by Wikimedia Commons/Alves Gaspar.
David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author, and cofounder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with contributions from foundation senior writer and editor Ian Hanington. Learn more at davidsuzuki.org.
The five-day workweek is an anachronistic relic of a time when conditions were far different than today.
Back in 1930, renowned economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that technological advances, slowed population growth, increasing capital (or “material things”), and changing economic priorities would make three-hour shifts or a 15-hour workweek possible and desirable within 100 years.
Then, he wrote, “The love of money as a possession—as distinguished from the love of money as a means to the enjoyments and realities of life—will be recognised for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity, one of those semicriminal, semi-pathological propensities which one hands over with a shudder to the specialists in mental disease.”
Keynes cautioned, however, that the “age of leisure and abundance” could be met with dread: “For we have been trained too long to strive and not to enjoy. It is a fearful problem for the ordinary person, with no special talents, to occupy himself, especially if he no longer has roots in the soil or in custom or in the beloved conventions of a traditional society.”
Still, he remained optimistic: “I feel sure that with a little more experience we shall use the new-found bounty of nature quite differently from the way in which the rich use it to-day, and will map out for ourselves a plan of life quite otherwise than theirs.”
We’re eight years from Keynes’s 100year prediction. Technology has advanced, more than he could have imagined. Population growth has slowed, although not stabilized. Capital has increased, albeit much wealth has been hoarded and monopolized by a few. And environmental and social crises have led many to question economic priorities. So, why are we still working hours similar to 70 years ago?
Part of the answer lies in the postwar adoption of “consumerism” as an economic model. It may also relate to the concern Keynes raised: the “dread” that people won’t know how to occupy their leisure time.
But with so many people feeling overwhelmed by an out-of-whack work-life balance, the latter isn’t an insurmountable problem. Women, especially, are feeling the crunch. Unlike in the 1950s, most have joined the workforce, but as in those days, they still do most of the housekeeping and child care.
Keynes distinguished between “absolute” and “relative” needs. The latter, he argued, “satisfy the desire for superiority”, and “may indeed be insatiable”. But Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz notes that society moulds our choices. We “learn how to consume by consuming”, he writes, and how to “enjoy leisure by enjoying leisure”.
Because we’ve failed to reduce work hours gradually, as Keynes envisioned, we’re unlikely to achieve 15-hour workweeks by 2030. But environmental and social conditions have sparked a move toward a four-day workweek. (David Suzuki Foundation staff have enjoyed a four-day workweek since its founding in 1990.)
The biggest trial is in the U.K., where 3,300 workers at 70 wide-ranging companies, from small to large, recently started working four days a week with no loss in pay. The experiment—led by 4 Day Week Global in partnership with the think-tank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week Campaign, and researchers at Cambridge and Oxford universities and Boston College—will “measure the impact on productivity in the business and the wellbeing of its workers, as well as the impact on the environment and gender equality”, a Guardian article says.
Governments are also backing trials in Scotland and Spain, and countries like Iceland and Sweden have run successful trials. Along with other benefits like increased vacation time and flexibility, and working from home, shorter workweeks not only give people better lives, they’re also good for the environment. Fewer people commuting means reduced pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and traffic congestion.
The pandemic taught us it’s possible to rapidly shift our ways of thinking and acting, especially as they relate to work. It’s past time to recognize that life isn’t given meaning through excessive consumption and toil, but by having time to spend with friends and families and by pursuing interests outside of work. That will even benefit employers by helping staff be happier, healthier and more productive.
We may not achieve Keynes’s predicted 15-hour workweeks by the end of this decade, but we can surely aim for a better balance. g
– David Suzuki
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LIQUOR Mint juleps, cocktail kits, and a reason to gloat
by Mike Usinger
Yes, we get it and we’re sorry. Last week we started off complaining about the weather, and the fact that it’s been raining nonstop since last September. So we’ve been sitting on patios wearing winter coats and mittens and loading up on Little Hotties hand warmers at London Drugs. And, as a result, like you, we could use something to look forward to. Like, for example....
A TASTE OF OLD KENTUCKY While Hastings Racecourse is located in glorious East Van, Lotusland’s most famous horse-racing track is about to take on a decidedly Old South, Churchill Downs flavour for what’s being dubbed The Cup.
Pop-ups for the event, which takes place July 23, will include a Mint Julep Experience featuring four different bourbons, with drinks overseen by The Cup cocktail director Alex Black.
Remember when smoking was not only good for you, but you looked goddamn dapper doing so? The mid-century Cigar Lounge will have horse-racing fans lighting up while sipping Alfred Giraud Whisky, while the Rosé Garden will serve food from Salty’s Lobster Shack, Arc Iberico, and Kaviari.
Music, meanwhile, will be provided by K-OS and homegrown hero Felix Cartal.
As if all that isn’t reason enough to dress like the ’20s—the 1920s, that is—never
The Cup at Hastings Racecourse will channel the spirit of the Kentucky Derby on July 23 with mint juleps, a mid-century cigar lounge, VIP booths, and music by K-OS and Felix Cartal.
went out of style, The Cup will also feature VIP booths, grandstand suites, local art, and, of course, horse racing.
There’s also a Style Stakes competition for best-dressed on the day, where the winner takes home $10,000 and the right to judge next year’s event. And, one might dare to dream, gets unlimited Mint Juleps—with the caveat that, sadly, most dreams don’t always come true. Which explains the complete lack of Kentucky Derby photos on your Instagram account, even though you’ve been there a thousand times in your mind.
BIG-TIME BEE BUDDIES At a time when it seems like no one is getting along with anyone, here’s something that we can all agree on: like hummingbirds, butterflies, and black-and-white ruffed lemurs, everyone loves bees. And the reason for that is simple—they are planet Earth’s most important pollinators, responsible for kickstarting crops ranging from alfalfa and almonds to peaches and pumpkins.
As every National Geographic subscriber knows, bee colonies have been in decline in recent years thanks to factors ranging from pesticide exposure and lack of genetic diversity to parasite infestations and habitat loss. This makes for a more-than-timely new partnership between Vancouver Island honey-focussed Wayward Distillery and Vancouver’s The Bar Cart cocktail specialists. The two have teamed up for the Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee cocktail kit, which celebrates Pollinator Week (June 20 to 26).
Each kit starts with Wayward’s Raspberry Gin Liqueur, where fresh berries and raw honey are an invaluable part of the finished product. From there you get the makings for two Bar Cart-created cocktails.
For the Float Like a Butterfly there’s agave syrup, lemon juice, vegan egg-whitesubstitute foamer, fresh lemon, and blue butterfly pea flower powder for the rim. The Sting Like a Bee ingredients include fresh lime, grapefruit bitters, dried lime wheels, and a honey and orange-blossom syrup. Those who have trouble making a proper glass of water will be relieved there’s a detailed instruction card for each cocktail.
The best part of the package, which will make eight drinks in total, is that $13 from each $85 Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee kit goes to Pollinator Partnership Canada. Or, more accurately, to Canada’s bees. Who thank you in advance.
PIZZA POP-UP WITH BENEFITS Here’s something that every Commercial Drive and Strathcona denizen knows: few things are more satisfying than hanging out at Luppolo Brewery during rush hour. You’re at a table, or on the patio, with a Zest in Show Citrus-Zest IPA or a La Piazza Italian Pilsner. A couple of dozen-yards away the suit-clad worker bees of New West, Burnaby, and Surrey are at a standstill in their cars on Venables, with a good hour ahead of them on their evening commute.
Things will get even sweeter at Luppolo from June 24 to July 3, when Sunday Pies Pizza Co. teams up with the East Van brewery for a pop-up. Eight pop-up pizzas will include the Mortadella (pistachio pesto, mortadella, arugula, and preserved lemon), Patat (stracciatella, taleggio, shaved potatoes, and prosciutto), and the Farmer (caramelized zucchini, fior di latte, and veggies).
Need another reason to feel sorry for the bridge, tunnel, and suburbia people? The pizza pop-up overlaps with Luppolo Brewing’s second Summer Solstice Sesh: Fruit and Sour Beer Fest, running June 25 to July 3. Yes, there are benefits to living in East Van, and they don’t stop with the Adanac bike route and Little Miss Vintage. g
ARTS Indigenous choreography sharpens this year’s Edge
by Charlie Smith
Vancouver choreographer and dancer Starr Muranko has been thinking a lot about water these days.
“We have the concept of water within our bodies and then the water that flows and keeps us connected outside of our bodies,” Muranko, artistic associate with Raven Spirit Dance, tells the Straight by phone between rehearsals.
She also believes that water serves as a metaphor for the currents running through Indigenous women’s dance in North America. Muranko mentions similarities and differences between traditional and contemporary forms, and why her company’s newest production is called Confluence. It will have its world premiere at the Dancing on the Edge festival.
“We had this image of these two rivers—of a confluence of rivers—that are very much flowing together and sometimes separate, and then come back together,” Muranko says.
She adds that water also serves as a metaphor for the ways in which the women move in space and relate to each other over the 45-minute production.
“It’s very much about the stories that we carry as Indigenous women and that we carry for ourselves and our families and our communities, and also for each other,” she explains.
The other performers of Indigenous ancestry in Confluence are Raven Spirit Dance artistic director Michelle Olson, Tasha Faye Evans, Jeanette Kotowich, and Emily Solstice Tait.
This isn’t the only confluence of Indigenous women at Dancing on the Edge. O.Dela Arts and Pepper’s Ghost New Media & Performing Arts Collective will share Maamawi: Together Through the Fire, which is an Indigenous-led production with original choreography by Vancouver resident Olivia C. Davies. Cocreated by Davies and Athomas Goldberg, it’s a futuristic interpretation of Anishinaabe fire prophesies, supplementing live performance with virtual and augmented reality for some in the audience.
In a phone interview with the Straight, Davies says that there are seven Anishinaabe fire prophesies speaking to such things as the migration of strangers to the homeland, as well as colonization and destruction. Finally, she acknowledges, there’s a revelation of a new way forward that’s possible through the discovery of shared connections and a willingness to move as allies into the future.
“That seventh fire is also where we are considered today in how we’re returning to our cultural teachings and looking to our elders to find the stories that have been lost,” Davies says.
This leaves two paths, she says, one leading to salvation and the other to materialism and ruin. The show’s cultural consultant, Gloria May Eshkibok, told her that the eighth and final fire of the Ojibwe people, who are part of the Anishinaabe group of related Indigenous peoples, would launch a new era of good things to come.
That, Davies says, is the jumping-off point for her choreography. It’s intended to look at where things will be 200 years from now.
“What are the lessons that were learned?” Davies asks. “At what point did humanity have to come to that point of no return? That we were able to take the good side of technology—take the technology that fuels our willingness to move forward with collective humanity, with kindness, with love, with peace, with hope not only for humankind but of animalkind, plantkind—all in that same carefully woven basket of care?” Davies asks.
Davies, a mixed-race Anishinaabe artist, became interested in her Indigenous identity in her 20s during a difficult period in her life. “It was certainly a life-changing time to find Anishinaabe elders who were willing to share their culture with me and help me in my search to find out who I am and where I came from,” she says.
Now a mother, she’s emphatic that her daughter won’t have to experience the same sense of dislocation, which drives her work.
After Davies moved from Ontario to Vancouver in 2011, she connected with Raven Spirit Dance, where she was mentored and given opportunities to develop her choreographic vision with a focus on her mixed identity. That eventually led her to O.Dela Arts, which is a creative project founded in 2018.
“When I speak about my mentors, I always mention both Starr Muranko and Michelle Olson, who took me under their wing and gave me space,” Davies says.
She also credits three other giants of Indigenous dance in Canada: Dancers of Damelahamid executive and artistic director Margaret Grenier, multidisciplinary artist Santee Smith, and choreographer and dancer Lara Kramer.
“So each of these women’s voices have also definitely influenced my trajectory and what I am doing and creating in my works today,” Davies says.
Maamawi: Together Through The Fire and Raven Spirit Dance’s Confluence each look at decolonization in their own way. For Muranko, one of the objectives was to decolonize the idea of even having a choreographer and dancers. In this nonhierarchical approach, everyone contributes to what she describes as “collective choreography”, with the dancers taking turns at leadership.
“It sounds really wonderful because we’re at this place now where it’s all working and flowing and getting ready for a show,” Muranko says. “But there’s been really hard times along the way. It’s not easy to decolonize our minds or the way we’re working. And we need to create space to process things that are coming up—and how you do things in a shared space.”
She feels that this approach has led the group to develop some useful methodologies, including understanding how to work through difficult issues as they come up.
In this regard, she quotes Grenier’s mother, the now-deceased Indigenous dance elder Margaret Harris. Muranko recalls Harris sometimes sharing a story with her protégés about how geese behave while flying.
“There’s always a shared leadership,” Muranko notes. “You have the head goose—they’re definitely leading the way. But when they get tired, they can fly back and another one takes the lead.”
She then says that according to legend, the ones at the back will be honking to encourage the one at the front.
“So we’ve kept that too—that shared leadership,” Muranko says. “That’s something that Margaret’s mother shared with us that has kept us going all these years.” g
The five Indigenous performers in Raven Spirit Dance’s Confluence all contributed to what the company calls “collective choreography”, taking turns at being leaders. Photo by Erik Zennström.
– choreographer Olivia C. Davies
Dancing on the Edge presents Raven Spirit Dance’s Confluence at the Firehall Arts Centre at 7 p.m. on July 8 and 9 p.m. on July 9. The festival presents O.Dela Arts and Pepper’s Ghost New Media & Performing Arts Collective’s Maamawi: Together Through the Fire at 8 p.m. on July 13 and 14.
