Mainstream discourse about work is heavy with nonsense, but sadly so is a lot of leftish talk. The two versions are tightly bound together. The orthodox spin tales of productivity miracles and smart machines, and too many people take them seriously. George Gilder's cheerful tales of fully automated lifestyles (like his book Microcosm) metamorphose into Jeremy Rifkin's End of Work or Stanley Aronowitz and William DiFazio's Jobless Future. Fortunately for their argument, none of these writers seem to care much about rigorous evidence, but unfortunately, they've acquired some influence.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.
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Doug Henwood (1997) studied this question.
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