The 'work as bad' thesis in economics: origins, evolution, and challenges

This paper argues that in all major of epochs of economic thought - mercantilist, classical, and neoclassical - work has been portrayed as an unloved necessity. Politically, the treatment of work as a necessary evil has created undue pessimism about the prospects for progress in the quality of work and has helped to justify repressive policies to compel the working population to work hard. The 'work as bad' thesis, however, has been challenged by several writers, including Marx and the American institutional economists Commons and Veblen. These authors showed how the costs of work were socially determined and highlighted the possibility for intrinsically rewarding work under a transformed system of work. It is argued that in spite of some efforts to extend the analysis of work in mainstream economics such analysis is still lacking in comparison with similar analysis developed outside the mainstream paradigm. The paper outlines some of the strengths of an alternative economics of work based on insights drawn from non-mainstream economics.