Terry McDonough wrote,
>I'm surprised that
>Tom W. hasn't pointed out that the alternative to the increase in
>consumption is the contraction in the work week (the alternative
>pursued at the turn of the century in response to rising
>productivity).
You don't know what a strain it was to refrain from pointing out precisely
that! I wanted to see if I could tease out the argument from someone else by
_not_ uttering it myself. The experiment worked. Thanks, Terry.
But now that the cat is out of the bag, I have to confess that my two
capitalist sources on productivity (cited in [PEN-L:10198] Re: The EU:
against wishful thinking) were, incidently, polemics against shortening the
work week: _A Shorter Workweek?: an information manual on key questions_
published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1962 and "Shorter week won't
increase productivity" an editorial by Michael Walker of the Fraser
Institute published in the Vancouver Sun, April 11, 1997.
BTW, I'm looking at those documents as part of a survey of attitudes towards
reducing work time. The first step in the survey is to assemble a database
of statements representing (as comprehensively as feasible) the range of
arguments presented by opponents and supporters of shorter work time. My
hypothesis for this study is that the issue has become "blocked" because a
lot of the views held -- both for and against BUT PRIMARILY AGAINST -- are
apocalyptic/millenarian.
Admittedly this hypothesis might strike some people as odd. By all
appearances, the apocalypticists are on the affirmative side, e.g. Rifkin
and Aronowitz. The title of Rifkin's book even sounds like "The End of the
World is Nigh". But gazing into the deep structures of their discourse, the
Chamber of Commerce and the Fraser Institute make John Calvin look like a
secular humanist;-).
Yes, the Protestant work ethic lurks somewhere in that labyrinth, shorn of
all piety. A frightening thing indeed when inept theology runs amok.
Regards,
Tom Walker
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
knoW Ware Communications |
Vancouver, B.C., CANADA | "Only in mediocre art [and in spreadsheets]
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | does life unfold as fate."
(604) 669-3286 |
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The TimeWork Web: http://mindlink.net/knowware/worksite.htm
