I believe it does necessarily follow, and wages would necessarily decline.
The argument is a simple application of the same economic laws that have
caused working hours to decline. As wages have risen (and I don't know
really why they have risen, so I won't set forth my theories), and people
have had more entertainment opportunities available, the marginal value of
an additional 1 hr of working has declined and the marginal value of an
additional 1 hr of leisure has risen.
If everyone suddenly had 8 additional leisure hours per day, this would
necessarily reduce the marginal value of leisure time. It would also
increase the marginal value of work, since people would have more time to
spend money. Necessarily, statistically speaking, people would work
more hours. Lower wages follows from the increase in the worker-hour pool,
and because the minimum amount of money needed to support yourself and your
family for a week, which is the minimum amount that the large unskilled labor
pool will accept for a week's work, does not change (or even goes down,
due to not needing a house), while the number of hours they can work doubles.
Phil Goetz@cs.buffalo.edu
(I'm sending this to the extropians list because someone said it was
inappropriate for exi-east. I don't subscribe to extropians anymore,
so please send me a copy if you reply.)