---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Chapman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: uk-policy Working Time On 26/5/98, Gavin Cameron wrote. >......job sharing or a 'work-spreading tax' could not have very >much effect on total unemployment. Indeed, economists have a name for the >idea that cutting working hours would raise employment: the 'lump of labour >fallacy'. The 'work-spreading tax' I proposed (in my contribution of 24/5/98 and in my paper at: http://www.democdesignforum.demon.co.uk/unemp.nexus.html) is a change of the present income tax and social security tax paid by the employees, into a tax paid by the employer. WST is such that any individual employer pays less tax on a given total amount of wages, if he spreads the work between more workers. Thus it seems reasonable to expect that, when there are unemployed persons available who can do the work, the change to WST will result in more people being employed. No prediction is made about any change in the total number of hours worked, in the whole economy. In view of this, the lump of labour fallacy does not seem relevant. ******************************************** Dr David Chapman Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Democracy Design Forum Coles House, Buxhall, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 3EB, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1449 736 223 Fax: +44 (0) 1449 612 274 Website: http://www.democdesignforum.demon.co.uk/index.html ------------------------------------------------------------- Posted to uk-policy, a service of Nexus. http://www.netnexus.org/ Hosting and email provided by new media consultants On-Line Publishing Regards, Tom Walker ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ #408 1035 Pacific St. Vancouver, B.C. V6E 4G7 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (604) 669-3286 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
