[P2P-F] historical success of shorter working week

Sandwichman lumpoflabor at gmail.com
Sat Jul 16 19:34:41 CEST 2011 

My manuscript did previously have a different working title, "The Gift of
Prosperity," which I changed to "Jobs, Liberty and the Bottom Line" after a
major revision last October in which I promoted the discussion of social
accounting and the labor commons to much greater prominence in the
structure. The "two books" are really two versions of the same book. It
might actually be worthwhile in the third talk for me to discuss the events
around that revision because I think it relates directly to the issue of
bringing people into the "next stage" in the process, which would be a
collaborative research stage.

On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 10:18 AM, Sandwichman <lumpoflabor at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for setting up the pages. A clarification: I have written only one
> book. There is an excerpt/digest from that book that is forthcoming as a
> chapter in an anthology but it is still just the one book.
>
> On Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 10:01 PM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Dear Tom,
>>
>> I find this a very fruitful direction of inquiry, very in tune with the
>> general idea of the commons,
>>
>> I created the book entry here:
>> http://p2pfoundation.net/Jobs,_Liberty_and_the_Bottom_Line and gave it a
>> place here as well, http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Labor
>>
>> What about your other book?
>>
>> Feel free to improve and amend all of the above; in particular, our labor
>> section could use quite a bit of improvement,
>>
>> Orsan and Walton are young p2p labour activists, and Phoebe a labour
>> researcher, who could be interested in your work as well;
>>
>> You are listed here, http://p2pfoundation.net/Commons-Oriented_Economists;
>> any suggestions for other interesting people, thanks for letting me know,
>>
>> Michel
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 9:36 AM, Sandwichman <lumpoflabor at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Michel,
>>>
>>> Below I have pasted an 813 word overview of the logic of my inquiry and
>>> the problem I am seeking to address in my book (there is only one, not two).
>>>
>>>
>>> Tom
>>>
>>> The issue I grapple with in *Jobs, Liberty and the Bottom Line *is not
>>> so much "what is the best remedy for unemployment" or even "what is the case
>>> for shorter working time" but why and how has one particular set of policy
>>> options been excluded from the mainstream discourse. Of course that possibly
>>> translates into "why is the *best* remedy the forbidden one?"
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Perhaps as much as or even more than problem solving, I am fascinated by
>>> the notion of taboo and its functioning as *unwritten* prohibition. How
>>> is the elusive ban transmitted and enforced in the absence of explicit
>>> instructions for such transmission and enforcement? The answer is through
>>> stock narratives that operate virtually as rituals, ignoring conflicting
>>> facts, inassimilable scientific theories and appalling outcomes.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> With regard to working time, academic economics has fostered the notion
>>> of a self-adjusting, individual choice-driven natural order in which the
>>> given hours of work are presumed to be optimal and any interference will
>>> lead to a decline in welfare. There are only three or four problems with
>>> this tale of a miraculous automatism. The canonical income-leisure choice
>>> model upon which it is based has no pedigree in economic theory and has been
>>> refuted by the empirical data. The idea is inconsistent with the established
>>> and authoritative theory of the hours of labor, presented by S.J. Chapman
>>> over a hundred years ago. And the strange "lump of labor" fallacy *claim
>>> * – an alleged belief by shorter work time policy advocates in a "fixed
>>> amount of work," which is routinely invoked to disparage dissenters – was
>>> decisively refuted as itself a fallacy nearly a century ago.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> One would think that with three strikes against it, the conventional
>>> wisdom hours of work and employment would be ripe for reconsideration. But,
>>> no, the impasse seems as formidable as ever, with calls for work time
>>> reduction relegated to the fringe of policy debate, even in the face of
>>> economic crisis, unacceptably high and persistent unemployment and the
>>> discrediting of formerly respectable economic myths about efficient markets
>>> and the "great moderation."
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> My approach to the issue of work time reduction and its taboo has led me
>>> down two tracks. One was recovering and documenting the body of economic
>>> thought suppressed by the fallacy claim and/or displaced by the textbook
>>> dogma that has grown up around income-leisure choice. The other was tracing
>>> the substance and history of the fallacy claim itself. That process has led
>>> me to a rather unexpected revelation of what the elusive "lump" in the
>>> fallacy claim actually stands for: the commons.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> In retrospect, it seems simple. If dogmatic political economy is
>>> understood as striving to vindicate the rights of property, then the
>>> violence of primitive accumulation and enclosure of the commons can only
>>> stand as an embarrassment and impediment to that goal – one that must be
>>> shunned, evaded and denied. Investigating the taboo on "work sharing" also
>>> highlights something about traditional attitudes toward work as a communal
>>> activity that has been obscured by the now prevailing industrial-era
>>> innovation of wage labor.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Not only is it perfectly *reasonable* – and not fallacious – to think in
>>> terms of sharing the work, it was formerly ingrained and virtually
>>> unthinkable socially to do otherwise. This is not to say that the
>>> institutions for carrying out such sharing were necessarily ideal or
>>> equitable, or that those institutions *should* have survived the
>>> industrialization that finished them off. The lesson we can take from these
>>> archaic institutions, though, is that the individualized commodity form of
>>> wage labor is not the only or necessarily the best way of organizing and
>>> compensating work.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The labor commons that I propose in *Jobs, Liberty and the Bottom Line*is thus not an entirely new idea but is rooted in traditional practices and
>>> institutions such as the quilting bee, barn raising and medieval guilds. It
>>> is also foreshadowed in the contradictory nature of the modern division of
>>> labor and wage system itself, in that the determination of who *does*what and who
>>> *gets paid* how much is inevitably controversial and unstable. Early
>>> trade unionism, in sharp contrast to today's trade union bureaucracy, took
>>> much of its impetus from the much maligned commons view of work, which
>>> Samuel Gompers summed up in the phrase: "That so long as there is one man
>>> who seeks employment and cannot obtain it, the hours of labor are too long."
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> My innovation is to animate the labor commons through a new accounting
>>> technique – a method of social accounting that takes into explicit account
>>> the effects of work-time variation and distribution on social productivity.
>>> The calculations that need to be performed for this new social accounting
>>> for time are conceptually easy to explain but operationally complex enough
>>> to be feasible only with the advent of the personal computer and
>>> availability of spreadsheet programs. Moreover, the technology lends itself
>>> to a deliberative solution, rather than to the dictate of experts.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 11:20 AM, Michel Bauwens <
>>> michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> perhaps what would be useful to start with, as our audience doesn't know
>>>> you, is the total logic of your work, i.e. why are you writing those 2 books
>>>> specifically, 'what problem are you trying to solve' and who are you
>>>> 'debating' with ...
>>>>
>>>> later on, we can give more extensive treatment of your books in our book
>>>> of the week program, if you're interested,
>>>>
>>>> this involves 3 presentations per book, on a given week, with a general
>>>> presentation followed by 2 significant experts,
>>>>
>>>> Michel
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 1:03 AM, Sandwichman <lumpoflabor at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Thanks, Michel I'll work up a brief outline.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 10:33 AM, Michel Bauwens <
>>>>> michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Tom, this is also a general invitation to present your books and
>>>>>> concepts to the p2p foundation audience, our blog is a top 2% retweeted blog
>>>>>> ...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I don't have time for the moment to explore your ideas in depth
>>>>>> myself,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Michel
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 11:11 PM, Sandwichman <lumpoflabor at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Michel et al.,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In my view one of the most inspirational historical experiences with
>>>>>>> a shorter day for full pay was achieved in the Newcastle engineers' strike
>>>>>>> of 1871 for the nine-hour day. The success of that struggle inspired a wave
>>>>>>> of emulation across the U.K. and (at least) Canada. I retell the story of
>>>>>>> that strike, based mainly on the contemporary account of John Burnett, in
>>>>>>> the first chapter of my manuscript, "Jobs, Liberty and the Bottom Line," in
>>>>>>> which I also present a commons-based (Elinor Ostrom) strategy from
>>>>>>> restarting a dynamic shorter work time movement.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> http://ecologicalheadstand.blogspot.com/p/jobs-liberty-and-bottom-line.html
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> best
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Tom Walker
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 7:17 AM, Michel Bauwens <
>>>>>>> michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>  thanks Juliet, already very useful,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Michel
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 8:33 PM, Juliet Schor <juliet.schor at bc.edu>wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Michel
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> A great historical source is Ben Hunnicutt's Work without End. His
>>>>>>>>> book on the Kellogg workers six hour day finds a less positive outcome.
>>>>>>>>> My student, Anders Hayden, has written a very nice paper on France,
>>>>>>>>> which I attach here. I am also cc:ing Ben Hunnicutt who may have some good
>>>>>>>>> references on positive cases. Ben, any ideas?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Juliet
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On Jul 12, 2011, at 8:13 AM, Michel Bauwens wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Dear Juliet, Orsan, and friends,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Can anyone point to the historical experience with shorter working
>>>>>>>>> weeks (with keeping full pay)?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> As far as  I know, these experiences were very positive overall,
>>>>>>>>> but I'd like to see this confirmed with concrete references,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Michel
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> --
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>>>>>>>>> http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>>>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  -
>>>>>>>> http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
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>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> Sandwichman
>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
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>>>>>> http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
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>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Sandwichman
>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
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>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Sandwichman
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>>
>> Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Sandwichman
>



-- 
Sandwichman
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