There are 168 hours in a week. Every person must decide how to split them up between work and leisure. For most people they must work to earn money for their needs; however, after a certain amount of hours those earning switch from needs to wants. The labor hours for needs are highly essential to work; however, every additional hour worked becomes less valuable to you because they are for wants and competing directly with your leisure hours. |
Likewise, every additional hour of leisure becomes less important to you compared to making those leisure hours better by working to have the funds to buy entertainment. For example, working for 20 hours a week just to meet your basic needs means that you do not have the money to travel, pay for a theme park, or buy that fishing pole. The first hour a week of leisure if you only had one would be much more valuable than the 50th hour of leisure of the week. |
Every person must decide for themselves the correct balance. When determining their balance, one does not look at gross pay, rather after-tax pay. Based on the Laffer Curve and this teaching, people will stop economic activity sooner, the higher the tax burden because take-home pay is reduced. |