“Today as always, men fall into two groups: slaves and free men. Whoever does not have two-thirds of his day for himself, is a slave, whatever he may be: a statesman, a businessman, an official, or a scholar.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

At the time, Nietzsche’s quote rang of a fundamental shift in the idea of “work” and “labor” where we, as a society, move away from a job as a standing or position in society and instead compartmentalize it as a force, opposite life and yet perpetuating of it. The implication of his words is simple; if you work more than eight hours in a day, no matter your job, or the cache it brings, you are a slave. What Nietzsche’s quote means concerning personal freedom and the true definition of a slave is a topic for another day, but the fundamental point remains.

“Well, he’s right”, you may say, pointing to a clock and drawing the perfect eight hours you are scheduled to work, skipping the hour or half-hour you have for lunch, “I have two-thirds of my day to myself. I am not a slave.” And while this certainly seems to be the truth, a closer look reveals the massive, and even deadly, miscalculation.

What is “time for yourself?” Is it as simple as “time with which you may do as you please?” Given that definition, the average person is, by Nietzsche’s definition, a slave. If the average person ran through their everyday routine and recorded their activities into categories pertaining to whom they do it for, they would be shocked to find out the true number of hours devoted to themselves. Following a theoretical, but no less plausible, day of an average individual, we would see such allotments: “5:30 Wake up and take shower”, “6:00 Get dressed”, “6:15 Eat breakfast”, etc. And where is this chronology heading towards? “7:00 Leave for work.” The day has just begun and this person has spent an hour and a half in preparing for work and all this leaving out what it may be like if they have a child or children. “But,” a rebuttal may begin, “that time may be used for whatever they please. Surely, it’s free time.” If that is indeed the case, one may simply swap out that time with anything and the end result is the same: “5:30 Sleep”, “6:30 Wake up, make coffee, and watch Netflix”, “7:00 Leave for work(?).” The dilemma this individual faces now is though they have used their free time as they so pleased, they aren’t ready to leave for work. Because they are not ready for work, they are late to work, jeopardizing their job and livelihood. The conclusion drawn from this is such; this time is not free time.

Even still, we have left off an important detail, one which pervades every aspect of many Americans’ lives, the commute. The data is clear and has been for years, the average commute is at an all time high and will only get longer. As the divide between the classes gets larger and the middle class stagnates or worse, the jobs are moving away from affordable housing to expensive, high-density areas and the working class must drive on a rickety bridge spanning the eroding gap in between. As it stands now, Americans spend about an hour in traffic everyday. This time, certainly, is not free time.

The issue stands now at a two and a half-hour amount of time outside of work that is not “free time.” Then, comes the middle of the day and lunch time with it. Most Americans spend those thirty minutes to an hour, a portion of time that often doesn’t even begin at their discretion, reheating leftovers from the other night, quickly stuffing it down, and getting ready to get back to work. Frankly, this is not only not free time, but the idea that anyone would accept not being paid for this time is sickening.

Here our theoretical worker ends their day, heads home, prepares and eats dinner, and hopefully finds the “time to themself” and thus avoid slavery. Perhaps they will pull the three hours of time they were not allowed from work out of their sleep, or they will use sleep as an eight hour respite from the rest of the day. But for more nearly a third of Americans, the former option is the reality. To much of America, this sentiment is clear; we are so starved for free time that we take it out of our sleep, the side effects of which are harmful and often deadly. On top of this, it is evident that if there were a choice of sleeping or not, many Americans can and will choose not to. Sleep, then is definitely not free time.

The American worker sits now at 5 hours of free time, if they don’t have kids, are single, etc. This leaves them just over a fifth of the day, falling far short of the goal of two-thirds. It’s time the hard fact was faced; even if we accept Nietzsche’s idea of what a “slave” is, the working class is surely placed in an echelon even lower.