On 8/26/06, Massimo Portolani <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
But what are the alternatives?
In a letter to the poet, T.S. Eliot, dated April 5, 1945, Keynes designated shorter hours of work as one of three "ingredients of a cure" for unemployment. The other two ingredients were investment and more consumption. Keynes regarded investment as "first aid," while he called working less the "ultimate solution." This specification of reduced work time as one of three strategic choices for maintaining employment echoes a comment in a letter written three years earlier regarding a Treasury memorandum on purchasing power and consumers' goods in the post-war period. A more thorough and formal presentation of his view appeared in a note Keynes prepared in May 1943 on "The Long-Term Problem of Full Employment." In that note, Keynes projected three phases of post-war economic performance. During the third phase, estimated to commence some ten to fifteen years after the end of the war, "It becomes necessary to encourage wise consumption and discourage saving, –and to absorb some part of the unwanted surplus by increased leisure, more holidays (which are a wonderfully good way of getting rid of money) and shorter hours." -- Sandwichman
