People are going to pay for the "unhappy equilibrium" one way or another:
1. Those who work long hours either sacrifice other aspects of personal or
family development. And they may perceive that they work long hours and
pay high taxes for those who are not in work.
2. Employers rely on the welfare state (long-term unemployment
payments/early retirement pensions/social assistance) to pay for their
strategy of economic rationalization. The welfare state picks up the tab
of labor shedding, and employers are able to avoid incurring greater
non-wage labor costs by not hiring more workers and instead having existing
workers work overtime. This ends up costing taxpayers, too.
We should seek a "happier equilibrium" by pushing for a shorter workweek.
We may also have to realize that in some countries where social insurance
costs fall heavily on employers and employees (through payroll taxes), the
government may have to pick up part of the non-wage labor costs for the
welfare state via general revenues (progressive income taxation).
Employers might then be more willing to hire more workers. This kind of
strategy might then reduce resentment on the part of those who work long
hours and dont' want to finance the social assistance of those unemployed.
People may be willing to pay higher taxes if they know it is going to
finance training/welfare to work strategies, or job-sharing or parental
leave, and allow them more leisure time. It would redistribute work more
fairly and perhaps generate job creation as well.
Perhaps there is also a distinction to be made between those who work long
hours at low pay to make ends meet (working poor) and those who work long
hours because they want to move up in their careers or want the material
rewards from high incomes (eg., professionals in IT or financial services
or the legal profession). Some of the professionals may have chosen to put
their careers ahead of leisure or family life or other kinds of personal
developme--career advancement or a personal life. To some extent, people
decide what their priorities are. The working poor, it seems to me, don't
have such a choice.
In the end, however, both sets of workers could benefit from some kind of
statutory or negotiated workweek that would result from government action
or unions (where they are still a force).
Sue
Susan Giaimo
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
E53-470
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
Tel. (617) 253-6781
FAX (617) 258-6164
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