This book is written in support of proposals to reduce work time in order to improve employment opportunities. It is written in defense of leisure, both as a component of living standards and as a stimulus to real and meaningful use of consumer products. Shorter work hours promise a better life to the contemporary American family, where increasingly both husband and wife must work to make ends meet or where a single adult householder bears the entire burden of such responsibilities alone. They are a means to full employment, improved income distribution, and a stronger consumer market. The pursuit of shorter hours is embodied in the best traditions of organized labor. Why, then, is there entrenched resistance among U.S. policymakers to this legitimate aspiration of working men and women?
Author(s): Eugene McCarthy, William McGaughey
Publisher: Praeger Publishers
Year: 1989
Language: English
Commentary: scantailor optimized
Pages: 256
City: New York
Tags: working hours;economy
Nonfinancial economics
Contents
Introduction
Part I An Economic and Political View: Unemployment and the Economics of Waste
1 Bankruptcy of U.S. Employment Policy
2 The Productivity Factor
3 The Employment Factor
4 The Hours Factor
5 Output: Useful or Waste
6 Some Common Varieties of Waste
7 Shaking the Waste Out of This Economy
8 An Economy Built on Money and Debt
9 Micro and Macro Effects of Reduced Hours
10 International Work-Sharing
Part II Historical and Theological Views
11 A Short History of Working Hours
12 Work, Leisure, Philosophy, Ideology, and Their Perversions
Notes
Bibliography
Index
