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Everything related to Economics, including its theory, its applications, its anecdotes, its study and its lessons. Please feel free to discuss and debate economic issues and how they impact our life.
Economists Are Obsessed with “Job Creation.” How About Less Work?
submitted 4 years ago by Mnemonic from evonomics.com
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[–]worm 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun - 4 years ago (1 child)
If I might say so, you seem to have missed the larger picture entirely and focused entirely on a single, hypothetical working man and his choices, instead of why those choices exist in the first place.
If you take a look behind the mechanisms for your hypothetical working man, you will discover that the working man is offered 40 hour work weeks because the employer believes that the 40 hour work week will be profitable for him. The employer in turn believes that it would be profitable for him because he believes that there is a sufficient demand for the products he can create, such that he would extract a maximum amount of benefits from the employee should the employee work for 40 hours for him. The demand which drives his confidence is the reason why the employee is able to work 40 hour weeks and is not on part-time work; and the demand, for the most part, is for goods which previous generations would have considered alien luxuries.
If we as a society stop buying all but basic necessities, it would be entirely possible that the luxuries market would grind to a halt and employers would consequently start employing less people on fewer hours to produce such luxuries.
[–]Mnemonic[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - 4 years ago (0 children)
I agree on that.
Though this does touch on a kind of 'chicken--egg' scenario for these luxuries goods and the need/want for them. I mean like
if we as a society stop buying all but basic necessities
Could also be:
"f we as a society stop making all but basic necessities"
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[–]worm 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun - (1 child)
[–]Mnemonic[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - (0 children)