David Spencer Economics Division University of Leeds email daslubsleedsacuk Introduction The case for working less is present in the writings of both Marx and Keynes Both saw the shortening of work time as an important ingredient of a better society to come ID: 288068
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Slide1
The case for working less: insights from Marx and Keynes
David Spencer, Economics Division, University of Leeds, email:
das@lubs.leeds.ac.ukSlide2
Introduction
The case for working less is present in the writings of both Marx and Keynes
Both saw the shortening of work time as an important ingredient of a better society to comeSlide3
Presentation
Economics and working time
The case for working less in the writings of Marx and Keynes – similarities and differences
Working less: prospects and possibilitiesSlide4
Economics and working time
Key theme of standard economics is that workers are “free to choose” the hours they want to work
Workers are assumed to make rational choices over the allocation of their time between work and leisure which maximise their utility or happiness
Workers are able to work shorter hours if that is their preferenceSlide5
Economics and working time
Non-interventionist approach adopted – work time is best left to individual choice and free bargaining between workers and employers
Classical economics invoked the idea of “free agency” to oppose the C19th Factory Acts
Neoclassical economics invokes assumption that workers are free to determine their work hours in support of a flexible labour marketSlide6
Economics and working time
Standard economics takes the view that people have an interest in working less (work is a “disutility”)
Proceeds of higher growth can be used by people to “buy” more leisure time if that is their preference
Only the unlimited nature of human wants and the relative scarcity of resources keeps people at workSlide7
Marx and Keynes
Marx and Keynes challenged the standard account of work time determination in economics
More broadly, they offered a different vision of how society might and should be organised under conditions that enabled people to work less (similar vision also offered by J.S. Mill)
Look at contribution of each writer in turn, starting with MarxSlide8
Marx: work time and capitalism
Focus on the way in which capitalism imposes long hours of work on workers
Key feature of capitalism is the lack of free choice and the alienating conditions of work
Human suffering, physical and psychological, caused by long work hours and the degradation of workSlide9
Marx: limits to shorter work time under capitalism
Work time reduction only possible through class struggle. Work time legislation linked to working class resistance to long work hours
Technology developed under capitalism has the potential to shorten work time but this potential is left unrealised – instead, technology under capitalism becomes a means of exploitationSlide10
Marx: the workless future to come
Less work could and would be done in a future society
The inevitable abolition of capitalism would bring about a reduction of work time
Development of capitalism as a necessary stage in realising a workless futureSlide11
Marx: workless future to come
Marx foresaw that in a future communist society technology would be used to curtail work activity in the “realm of necessity” and to expand free creative activity in the “true realm of freedom”
Work could be turned into a rewarding activity, by curtailing drudgery and by organising it on a collective and communal basis
Work would be rendered as “life’s prime want” under communism
Communism will bring about not only more free time but also fulfilling workSlide12
Marx: workless future to come
“It
is self-evident that if
labour time is
reduced to a
normal length
and, furthermore, labour is no longer performed for someone
else
, but for myself, and,
at the
same time, the social
contradictions between
master and men, etc., being abolished, it acquires a
quite different
, a free character, it becomes real social labour,
and finally
the basis of disposable time - the time of labour of a man
who has
also disposable time, must be of a much higher quality than that
of the beast of burden
.” (Marx, TSV, vol.2)Slide13
Keynes: on work time
Keynes questioned the idea that workers could make rational, utility maximising choices in the labour market
Due to constraints on aggregate demand, workers could find themselves excluded from paid work through no fault of their own
Notion of “involuntary unemployment” and the denial of preferencesSlide14
Keynes: vision of workless future
Keynes’s 1930
Essay:
Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren
Looked
forward a hundred years and
foresaw
a
workless future
The
“economic problem” would
be solved by 2030
Technological progress and capital accumulation
would
enable us to meet our needs by working only 15 hours per weekSlide15
Keynes’s vision
Capitalism will create the necessary conditions for a future leisure society
The “money-making and money-loving instincts” of capitalism will propel the economic system towards a workless future, in which we will live better and fuller lives
These instincts will fade in the future and will be replaced by a striving for higher level goalsSlide16
Lilies of the field
“I
see us free, therefore, to return to some of the most sure and certain principles of religion and traditional
virtue - that
avarice is a vice, that the exaction of usury is a misdemeanour, and the love of money is
detestable … We
shall once more value ends above means and prefer the good to the useful. We shall honour those who can teach us how to pluck the hour and the day virtuously and well, the delightful people who are capable of taking direct enjoyment in things, the lilies of the field who toil not, neither do they spin
.”
Slide17
Working less and full employment
In a 1945 letter to the poet T.S. Eliot, Keynes wrote of the “three ingredients of a cure”
for unemployment — (
i
) more investment; (ii) more consumption; (iii) less work:
“The
full employment policy by means of investment is only one particular application of an intellectual theorem. You can produce the result just as well by consuming more or working less. Personally I regard the investment policy as first aid. In US it almost certainly will not do the trick. Less work is the ultimate
solution.” Slide18
Differences from Marx
Gradual, harmonious movement to workless future: productivity gains would lead to reductions in work time – Keynes overlooked resistance of capitalist employers to reduction in work time as well as the insatiability of human wants
Work would remain a “bad thing” in the future – reduction of work time was about escaping the disutility of work, not negating it. Keynes saw human fulfilment as arising from activities (not sloth) pursued in the non-work sphere. Unlike Marx, no hope for turning work into a fulfilling activitySlide19
Working time: recent trends
Keynes’s prophecy unlikely to be realised – despite huge gains in productivity, reduction in work time has either slowed or been reversed in recent decades
Rise in work time in the US
Average worker worked 1,868 hours in 2007, an increase of 181 hours from the 1979 work year of 1,687 hours. This represents a 10.7 percent increase —the equivalent of every worker working 4.5 additional weeks per year (Michel, 2013). Longer hours for those at the bottom of the income distribution and for women
Persistence of long hours in the UK
19.6 percent (5.9m) of UK workers work more than 45 hours a week (27.7 percent of male workers)Slide20
Working time:
recent trends
Wide variation in work time between nations, suggesting
that alternative work time arrangements are feasible
Official data may under-record total work time as work is performed during the commute to work and/or at homeSlide21
Barriers to shorter work time
Pressure to consume (competitive consumption)
effects of advertising
rising inequality
Pressure from employers linked to decline in unionisation and collective bargaining
Stagnant or falling real wages coupled with higher
debt
levels
effects of crisis
Impact of technology – more effective monitoring + increase in remote workingSlide22
Costs of working more
Economic costs: inefficiencies from working longer hours (impaired effort and reduced
cognitive
function due
to tiredness and stress
);
maldistribution
of work (overwork coexisting with unemployment)
Health costs: burnout, heart disease, mental illness, and even premature death
Social costs: less time for family and community activities
Environmental costs: more work implies more production and consumption and greater damage to the natural environmentSlide23
Fears of working less
Prospect of working less has become something to fear
Fear of loss of jobs and of increase in inequality due to advance of technology – freedom from work means greater economic destitution for many more people
polarisation of labour market and decline in absolute number of jobs (“second machine age”)
Promoting the case for working less involves challenging and overcoming this fearSlide24
Conclusion
Visions of a workless future contained in the writings of Marx and Keynes continue to inspire us to think differently about how we might live and work
Challenge us to think of growth as a means to a better life,
not as an
end in itself, and to see technology as a potentially liberating force
Given the benefits on offer, as a society, can we afford not to work less?