THE LAST WORD ON THE WORK ETHIC

Galbraith, John Kenneth

THE LAST WORD The work ethic: It works best for those who work least John Kenneth Galbraith The last few months have been greatly enriched, in a manner of speaking, by a discussion of the work...

...This was work—and I deeply detested it...
...the opulent and idle come here from all over the world to commune on how best to enjoy doing nothing...
...Some of the new burst of energy that we are to witness in the months ahead will come from a relaxation of rules on the environment, job safety, and by the Federal Trade Commission...
...As an ethic, it is especially ethical for the poor and much less ethical for the rich...
...Any serious reaffirmation of the work ethic also requires that those so motivated have a chance to work...
...When I reminded him that he had done no work himself, at least since the early Truman Administration, he responded with indignation, "My father worked hard for every cent I've got...
...I am thought to be a very hard worker—by some, excessively productive...
...Nothing is more pleasant than a penetrating examination of one's own virtue...
...Work is the tedious routine of the assembly line and the far from enchanting toil of those who collect the trash and garbage...
...A thoughtful, diverse, or aggressively bizarre use of leisure by those who can afford it is still a major mark of distinction and by far the most certain route into the columns of People magazine...
...The American economy is to be reinvigorated...
...If, choosing relaxation however intelligent or constructive or therapy however needful, they do not show up on a Monday for work, they are ethically insupportable...
...And there is a more general problem...
...American executives work about as hard as they can regardless of their after-tax pay...
...For some twenty-five years I have been coming to Gstaad, a small village in Switzerland, to write and otherwise occupy myself...
...In this springtime of the great conservative revolt, no one would wish to suggest that there are contradictions in the free enterprise system...
...this requires that Americans everywhere recover their lost appetite for work...
...But lectures to these on the merits of work must contend with the terrible fact that for most of them there are no jobs...
...For what it may be worth, I think this view of the executive work ethic is an insult...
...that is not because they need stimulation to greater effort but because, in an honest way, they would like the money...
...There are more problems...
...The very affluent in the United States were for long called the leisure class...
...In contrast, teaching at Harvard, writing books, or serving as an ambassador are entertainments for which one might reasonably be required to pay and some would...
...It is also the wonderfully self-rewarding occupation of the musician, painter, surgeon, lawyer, engineer, scientist, or business executive...
...Accordingly, to combine lectures on the worth of work with a policy that makes working more difficult is an egregious exercise in inconsistency...
...Altogether we are to see a revival of the great American work ethic...
...But there are...
...To suppose that they are holding back in the office, having long liquid lunches all the while awaiting tax reduction, should be a cause for real indignation...
...I John Kenneth Galbraith is professor emeritus of economics at Harvard University...
...This is how monetary policy works against rising incomes and prices...
...The big beer companies possibly apart, no one similarly celebrates the leisure-time tendencies of the working class...
...Working people are required to commit themselves to the work ethic, regardless of their pay...
...His autobiography, "A Life in Our Times," has just been published...
...There is, first of all, the terrible class aspect of the work ethic...
...Chrysler workers are not expected to work less hard because a ceiling of sorts has been set on their pay...
...This is not a subject on which I am at all disposed to be cynical or even skeptical...
...Finally, affecting any discussion of the work ethic is the terrible ambiguity of the word "work" itself...
...One day this winter a friend of many years told me that he thought the buggering off (his phrase) by the working classes was the greatest problem of our time...
...It will be greater if, as is widely assumed, the new Administration increases reliance on monetary policy and the attendant unemployment...
...Gstaad is, very possibly, the geographical nadir of the work ethic...
...But it is no doubt fair to warn those who are now talking about a revival of the work ethic that they are involved with, perhaps, the trickiest concept in all social theory...
...it is one of the pillars of supply-side economics, as it is now called...
...And here is another problem...
...But more is to come from people working harder, relaxing less at the public expense, getting paid in accordance with effort, and retaining more of what they get...
...It is, inescapably, that there is now mass-malingering in the higher executive brackets where the major benefits of Kemp-Roth will accrue...
...That they want the tax reduction is not in doubt...
...The work ethic requires these chaps to do their reasonable best regardless...
...The most damaging present manifestation of idleness is among the young, mostly black, in the central cities...
...Were it otherwise, were something not being withheld, personal income tax reduction could not bring a major increase in effort...
...THE LAST WORD The work ethic: It works best for those who work least John Kenneth Galbraith The last few months have been greatly enriched, in a manner of speaking, by a discussion of the work ethic...
...No one supposes that a favorable wage settlement in a firm or industry will bring a big burst of energy and output...
...Work is what members of Congress and the President of the United States spend millions of dollars to be allowed to do...
...That loss, more than anything else, was back of the malaise that Jimmy Carter identified and Ronald Reagan and his cohorts are here to correct...
...And those who do what should really be called work get the least...
...The corollary is worth pondering...
...That is the expected result of the income tax cuts now being discussed...
...In recent years we have been relying on unemployment to act as the brake on inflation...
...This article appeared in slightly different form in The Washington Post...
...I first learned about work in Ontario while following a team across the fields, removing the winter accumulation of animal nutrients from the barnyard, and helping restore the tile drains in the fields below the house...
...Broadly speaking, those who do what is least properly called work get the most for doing it...
...It is ridiculous that one word should be used to cover such diverse conditions...
...There are...
...At the upper-income levels, in contrast, an increase in aftertax income is presumed to have an enormously favorable effect on effort...
...No other word in the language covers such diverse and irreconcilable circumstances...

Vol. 45 • June 1981 • No. 6


 
Developed by
Kanda Sofware
  Kanda Software, Inc.