Attitudes to Work and the Future of Work: The View from Economics

Classical and neoclassical economists conceptualise work as intrinsically arduous and undesirable to workers, and entailing a cost in lost leisure time. This one-sided negative view of work overlooks the possibility that work can be fulfilling for workers. Marx and Veblen offer alternative ways of conceptualising work which could be a corrective to this narrow view—but mainstream economics has ignored their insights. Economics assumes that loss of work due to automation causes no harm to workers, since they just ‘choose’ more leisure, but this ignores the human need to work. Economics has failed to theorise work in any detail and the discipline must consider the variety and complexity of motives and meanings associated with human work.