Must Working Time be Reduced

Increased unemployment and its banalization provoke different responses from the population than those which occur in periods of full employment. As it becomes scarcer, work appears less as a constraint, while unemployment, by becoming normal, loses its attractiveness and becomes increasingly viewed as a constraint. It is the law of the market. Consequently, it is not advisable to begin by assuming that all decreases of working time would be experienced as social progress by wage-earners. Non-work too can be experienced as a constraint. This is especially the case for the great majority of pre-retirees and retirees. If work is considered as a rare commodity, its regulation is presented in totally different terms than when it was abundant

Attractiveness · Commodity · Constraint (computer-aided design · Economics · Labour economics · Macroeconomics · Market economy · Political science · Population · Sociology · Time constraint · Unemployment · Wage · Work (physics · Working population · Working time · Demography · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Psychology