s top-down style is further strengthened by the strong role the family has in the system. A person is to a greater extent considered being a part of a family, rather than an individual. All this fortifies the incentives to work hard. The Confucian system, when applied to the extreme, does not give anyone a choice of choosing another way of life. If you are born into the system you are bound to work hard either because of the values themselves or by the power of someone who reinforce those values. The Confucian virtues in themselves may be bad or good, and when regarding the work ethic they resemble Lutheran virtues, but the other part of the system, the unequal relationship, reinforces a master and slave tradition in the Confucian societies. Are we sure that, if given a free choice (if such a thing really exists), people in Asia would not look for other virtues than hard work itself? Also people in Asia may work as hard as they do because they have to survie. Technology was supposed to bring in an era of shorter work hours and an era of increased leisure time this has not come about, the reverse seems to be true. Increases in technology have made it possible to do more with fewer workers. I'm not convinced that increased productivity and shorter work hours are really closely connected. My problem is that I don't see management's motivation for allowing it. If some technology allows a company to make more product faster and cheaper, the idea of just letting everybody go home earlier seems to be the least realistic option. Since you now have a bigger supply to sell, you can move into new markets, cut your price and try to gain market share, or just cut jobs and increase profit margins or shift that money/jobs into other areas of the corporation. All of these options seem to have bigger benefits to the corporation itself than just letting people out of work early. Shorter working hours and job-sharing arrangements can be sugges...
