1 Tacks Read the article. FREAKONOMICS 1 Laid-Back Labor: The $140 Homemade Scarf By Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt During the late 19th century, piano manufacturing was one of New York City’s largest industries. Every rightminded American family, it seemed, wanted to fill ts home with music. The advent of the player piano'—a music-making machine that required zero talent—drove the boom even further. By the 1920s, some 300,000 pianos were being sold in the United States each year, roughly two-thirds of them player pianos. But a pair of newer technologies, the radio and the phonograph,? soon began to drive the piano into a deep disfavor that continues to this day. Last year, Americans bought only 76,966 pianos. That's a decrease of 75 percent over a period in which the population more than doubled. As much as people may love music, most ‘of them apparently don't feel the need to make it for themselves. According to Census Bureau? statistics, only 7.3 percent of American adults have played a musical instrument in the past 12 months. Compare this with the 17.5 percent of adults who currently engage in what the Census Bureau calls “cooking for fun.” Or consider that 41 percent of households have flower gardens, 25 percent raise vegetables, and 13 percent grow fruit trees—even keittng for fun "player piano: a piano that can play automatically 2 phonograph: a record player (old-fashioned) Census Bureau: the US. government agency that collects information about the population ‘though just 1 percent of Americans live on a farm today, down from 30 percent in 1920. On a more personal note: one of the authors of this column has a sister who runs a thriving yarn* store, while the other is married to a knitting devotee who might buy $40 worth of yarn for a single scarf and then spend ten hours knitting it. Even if her labor is valued at only $40 an hour, the scarf costs at least $140—or roughly $100 more than a similar machine- made scarf might cost. Knitting: a way to relax 4 Isn't it puzzling that so many middle-aged Americans are spending so much of their time and money performing menial labor when they don't have to? Just as the radio and phonograph proved to be powerful substitutes for the plano, the forces of technology have greatly eased the burden of feeding and clothing ourselves. So what's with all the knitting, gardening, and “cooking for fun"? Why do some forms of menial labor survive as hobbies while others have been killed off? (For instance, we can’t think of a single person who, since the invention of the washing machine, practices “laundry for fun.”) 5 Economists have been trying for decades to measure how much leisure time people have and how they spend it, but there has been precious 4 yar: thick thread (usually made of wool or cotton) that is ‘used for knitting | Reading and Writing 6162 little consensus. This is in part because it's hard to say what constitutes leisure and in part because measurements of leisure over the years have not been very consistent. Economists typically separate our daily activities into three categories: market work (which produces income), home production (unpaid chores), and pure leisure. How, then, are we to categorize knitting, gardening, and cooking? While preparing meals at home can certainly be much cheaper work today than we did in 1900 but more time in home production. Men, it seems, have contributed mightily to this upsurge: in 1920, employed men spent only 2 or hours a week on home production, but they averaged 14 hours by 1965 and 16 hours by 2004. 9 But how many of those home-production hours are in fact leisure hours? This, it seems, is the real question here: What makes a certain activity work for one person and leisure for another? than dining out and = 10 With no disrespect therefore viewed as emcee toward Ramey and Freres, home production, what | PlyingSpors neaaacare ris eaan about the “cooking for mae . alternative definition: fun" factor? H Whether or not you're In an attempt to ting ERSTE! getting paid, it's work if address such gray Gardening +f 7 someone else tells you areas, the economists an ' to do it and leisure if you Valerie A. Ramey and ' choose to do it yourself. If Neville Francis classified Paying Bills ‘ you are the sort of person certain home activities fae who likes to mow? your as labor and others as Home" tesue) | own lawn even though you leisure. In their recent Laundry Producten can afford to pay someone paper “A Century of > 24 6 738 10| to do it, consider how Work and Leisure,” they employed a 1985 time- use survey in which people ranked their enjoyment of various activities on a scale of 0 to 10. Knitting, gardening, and cooking were in the middle of the scale, with @ 77, 7.1, and 6.6, respectively. These ranked well behind some favorite activities—such as playing sports and fishing (which scored 9.2 and 9.1)—but firmly ahead of paying bills, cleaning the house and, yes, doing the laundry (5.2, 4.9, and 4.8), But here's where it gets tricky. Ramey and Francis decided that anything at or above a 7.3 is leisure, while anything below is home production. (Knitting, therefore, makes the grade as leisure; gardening and cooking do not.) This leads them to calculate that we spend less time doing market you'd react if your neighbor offered to pay you the going rate to mow his lawn. The odds are that you wouldn't accept his job offer. 11. And soa great many people who can afford not to perform menial labor choose to do so, because— well, why? An evolutionary biologist might say that embedded in our genes is a drive to feed and clothe ourselves and tame our surroundings. An economist, meanwhile, might argue that we respond to incentives that go well beyond the financial; and that, fortunately, we are left free to choose which tasks we want to do ourselves. 12 Of course, these choices may say something about who we are and where we come from. One of us, for instance (the economist, who lives in Chicago), grew up comfortably ina midwestern city 5 mows to cut gras sing a special machine o tool wth ‘pectal blade or blades UNIT 3 | Whatis the difference between work and fun?ime in ibuted 1 men jetion, hours hours ie real y work 2spect ancis, or an nition: you're ork if s you if you self. If yerson > your gh you neone how ighbor u the at you [not to use— nt say > feed dings. at we id the free to 7 thing n. One ves in rn city and has fond memories of visiting his grandparents’ small farm. This author recently bought an indoor hydroponic? plant grower. It cost about $150 and to date has produced approximately 14 tomatoes—which, once you factor in the cost of seeds, electricity, and even a small wage for the labor, puts the average price of a single tomato at roughly $20. 13, The other one of us (the journalist, who lives in New York) grew up on a small farm and was regularly engaged in all sorts of sowing, mucking, and reaping” He, therefore, has little desire to grow his own food—but he is happy to spend hydroponic: growing in water or sand, rather than in soil MAIN IDEAS hours shopping for and preparing a special dinner for family and friends. Such dinners, even if the labor were valued at only $10 an hour, are more ‘expensive than a similar takeout meal. 14 Maybe someday the New York guy will get to cook a meal with some of the Chicago guy's cherry tomatoes. It might become one of the most ‘expensive meals in recent memory—and, surely, worth every penny. From’ Lad ck Labor The $140 Horemade Serb Stephen Dubner ond ‘Steven O Let Te Me ork Tine, May 6, 2007 © 2007 The Hen Yor Tes [Aight reserved Used by ermision and protected bythe Copyright Laws of ‘he Unted Sater. The pti copying edtibution orrevanastion ofthe Mate witout express writen persion probed ” sowing, mucking, and reaping: farm chores Complete the summary of Reading 1 in your own words. Some leisure activities that were popular in the past (such as playing the piano) are less popular today because of developments in technology _. On the other hand, some activities 7 that used to be considered. popular as into market work, 7 — Economists divide our time ,and pure leisure. In one study, economists Valerie Ramey and Neville Francis found that we do less é than in 1900 but more However, authors Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt suggest a different definition of work and leisure: an activity is work if and leisure if. According to economists, people today do menial tasks when they don't need to because z | Reading andWriting 63_(n) avery quick look £ (n) a careful plan to reach a goal (v) to consider (as); to see in a certain way h, ____ (adj) connected to telecommunications, especially the Internet i, —_____ (ad) complicated or highly developed j. adj, rising or growing k, () to describe as bigger or better than true 1 __(n) a person who reports and discusses events or news PREVIEW READING 2 You are going to read an article from the newspaper The New York Times that describes a new development in video-game playing in South Korea: professional competitions. Who do you think part pates in these competitions? Do you think playing video games could be a sport? Why or why not? 02; . Trck10 Read the article. Video Gamers In Korea, video games at heart of wired nation; top players are treated like rock stars. By Seth Schiesel 1 At first glance, the COEX mall here seemed like any other urban shopping destination on a recent late-summer day. But then there were the screams echoing down the corridors from one corner of this vast underground complex. Hundreds of young people, mostly women and girls, waved signs and sang slogans in the kind of fan frenzy! reserved for rock stars, movie stars, or sports stars. “frenay: a state of great activity and strong emotion that is ‘often violent or frightening and not under control a video game competition in South Korea The objects of the throng’s adoration were actually a dozen of South Korea's most famous celebrities: professional video gamers idolized for their mastery of the science-fiction strategy game “StarCraft” 68 UNIT3 | Whatis the difference between work and fun?1. were famous olized rategy 3 On the other side of a glass wall from the throbbing crowd, players like Lim Yo-Hwan, Lee Yoon Yeol, and Suh Ji Hoon relaxed with a panel of commentators, their tracksuits covered with logos. With their easy confidence, they looked like athletes the world over. And they were not, even competing, They were gathered to watch the draw? for a coming tournament season on MBC Game, one of the country’s two full-time video game television networks. Ina country of almost 50 million people and home to the world's most advanced video game culture, more than 20,000 public PC gaming rooms, or “bangs,” attract more than a million people a day. South Korea's roughly $5 billion annual game market comes to about $100 per resident, more than three times what Americans spend. As video games become more popular and sophisticated, Korea may provide a glimpse of where the rest of the world's popular culture is headed. “Too often I hear people say ‘South Korea’ and ‘emerging market’ in the same sentence,” said Rich Wickham, the global head of Microsoft's Windows games business. “When it comes to gaming, Korea is the developed market, and it's the rest of the world that's playing catch-up.” South Korea is one of the most wired societies in the world. Yet despite widespread broadband Internet access at home, South Koreans still flock to the PC bangs. “For us, playing with and against other people is much more interesting than just playing alone against a computer,” said Woo Jong Sik, president of the Korea Game Development and Promotion Institute, There are certainly concerns about gaming in South Korea. The government runs small treatment programs for gaming addicts, and there are reports every few years of young men keeling over’ and dying after playing for days on 2 draw: the act of choosing something (competitors to be in agame) Skeeling over: illing over unexpectedly, especially because you tel or sick end. But on the whole, gaming is regarded as good, clean fun. 2 In the Seoul district of Shinlim, Huh Hyeong Chan, a 42-year-old math tutor, seemed to be the respected elder at the Intercool PC bang, which covers two floors. “Among people in their 20s and 30s, I think there is no one who hasn't been to a PC bang because it's become a main trend in our society,” he said from his prime seat at the head of a row of computers. “Most people think it’s good for your mental health and it’s a good way to get rid of stress. If you exercise your brain and your mind in addition to your body, that's healthy.” 10 Lee Chung Gi, owner of the Intercool bang, said, “It's impossible for students in any country to study all the time, so they are looking for interesting things to do together. In America they have lots of fields and grass and outdoor space. They have lots of room to play soccer and baseball and other sports. We don't have that here, Here, there are very few places for young people to go and very little for them to do, so they found PC games, and it's their way to spend time together and relax.” 11 But top pro gamers in South Korea do not get much chance to relax. 12 Lim Yo-Hwan, 27, the nation’s most famous gamer, explained at the SK Telecom StarCraft team’s well-guarded training house in Seoul that he usually gets up around 10 a.m, “After we wake up we have our breakfast, and then we play matches from 1 p.m, until 5. At 5 p.m. we have our lunch, and then at 6:30 for an hour and a half, I go to my gym, where I work out. Then Tcome home and play until 1 a.m. After 1, Tcan play more matches, or I can go to sleep if I want. But not many players sleep at 1.” 13 Lim sat in what might be called the players’ lounge: a spacious parlor of plush couches and flat-screen televisions. In an adjoining Reading and Writing 69 9apartment, the focus was on work. More than a half-dozen othermembers of the team satatrows of PCs demolishing one another at “StarCraft.” Outside, guards for the apartment complex kept an eye out for overzealous' fans. 14 “Without covering myself up in disguise, it’s really difficult to go out in public,” Lim said. “Because of the Internet penetration and with so many cameras around, I don't have privacy in my personal life, Anything I do will be on camera and will be spread throughout the Internet, and anything [say will be exaggerated and posted on many sites. It's hard because I can't maintain my relationships with friends. In terms of dating, the relationships just don't work out. So personally there are losses, but I don't regret it because it was my choice to become a pro gamer.” 15 Woo, the president of the Korea Game Development and Promotion Institute, estimated that 10 million South Koreans regularly follow eSports, as they are known here, and said that some fan clubs of top gamers have 700,000 members or more. 16 “These fan clubsare actually bigger insize than the fan clubs of actors and singers in Korea,” he said. In fact, Woo estimates that as many people watch professional gaming leagues as pro basketball, baseball, and soccer put together. “overzealous: shoving too mach energy or enthusiasm MAIN IDEAS Circle the answer to each question. 1. Which sentence expresses the main idea of the article? a. In South Korea, video games are only for professionals. b. Video games are both a hobby and a serious sport in South Korea. c. South Koreans do not take video games seriously as a sport. 70 UNIT3 | Whatis the difference between work and fun? 17 The celebrity of South Korea's top gamers is carefully managed by game-T'V pioneers like Hyong Jun Hwang, general manager of Ongamenet, one of the country’s full-time game networks. 18 “We realized that one of the things that keeps people coming back to television is the characters that the viewer gets to know and identify with, or maybe they begin to dislike,” he said, “In other words, television needs stars. So we set out to make the top players into stars, promoting them and so on. And we also do a lot of education with the players, explaining that they have to try to look good, that they have to be ready for interviews” 19 For his part, Lim cultivates a relatively low- key image. He knows that at 27 he is nearing the end of his window as an elite player. There are 11 pro teams in the country, he said, and they are full of younger players who are trying to take his place. But, he said, experience could make up for a few milliseconds of lost reflexes. 20 “The fasteryou think, the faster you can move,” he said. “And the faster you move, the more time you have to think” “vide Gamer tm “The Lod of th Video Gee fon Te Yor Tne, ‘October 2008, 7006 The New OTe Al ight reserved Used by permission {nd pte the Cope awr ofthe Unte Stare Te ping conn recnrason, orrevaamsion othe Maer wthou exes wren pemsson ‘Sprohbted