ABSTRACT
In Britain and a number of other Western countries there is a widespread belief that the economic recession of the 1980s is not merely a longer and more severe version of earlier recessions. The share of consumer expenditure devoted to leisure would increase as people became better off; so the leisure industries would experience a faster rate of growth than the rest of the economy. While the initial stages of industrialization produce long working hours and probably a reduction in leisure time compared with agricultural economies, not to mention the suffering and disruption which usually accompanies urbanization, in later stages working hours fall as workers trade-off time for money. As Tom Stonier has argued, education, apart from being vitally important in a modern economy, is a great potential absorber of people’s time and energies. Thus for many unemployed people the non-work option of full-time education is denied them and they are forced to adopt a life of idleness.
