On 2014-01-21, at 1:38 PM, Eugene Coyle wrote: > What progressive economists must provide is a path to Visualizing a > different future. I see that as happening through a repeated shortening of > working hours, till wants and aspirations can include something beyond > consumption that can never deliver a better life.
There has been a repeated shortening of working hours expressed in a steady increase in part-time, term, and casual employment over recent decades at the expense of full time employment - all accompanied by a corresponding loss of income. Most workers who have been forced to accept these precarious forms of employment are living near or below the poverty line. That's why the once powerful working class trade union and socialist movement insisted on shorter hours at no loss in pay. If, as is increasingly feared, the pace of jobs lost to automation will this time far outstrip new job creation, a dramatic reduction in work time accompanied by at least the maintenance of current living standards will become a pressing political issue. Most workers are currently scrambling to meet their basic needs, and they will not want to visualize a different future which threatens to erode their conditions still further. Unless I'm misunderstanding, your reference to moving "beyond consumption" suggests this is what you have in mind. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
