The End of Work or the Beginning of Shared Labor?
Read more of the review: New York Times Archive
Wikimedia Commons: Eleanor Roosevelt
William Julius Wilson describes the devastating effects of black unemployment in the late 80s and early 90s in his book: When Work Disappears. We ask: is the mere creation of public or private jobs, as Wilson proposes, the remedy for black unemployment? John Rawl’s theory of distributive justice suggests that everyone should have an equal opportunity to jobs, especially when a limited supply of paying jobs is the reality. Indeed, supporters of distributive justice argue that government has an ethical obligation to create work. Take for example the 1930s Works Progress Administration. The Bill Clinton White House courted Wilson to gain his support for its liberal workfare program. Workfare was considered a form of distributive justice: when implemented, it was hoped it would transition the unemployed (as it turned out mostly women) from welfare dependence to worker independence. The idea was simple: distribute jobs to individuals who don’t have equal access to jobs. The type or conditions of work did not matter; any work would alleviate the desperate conditions described by Wilson. However desirable distributive justice might be, when applied to work, we have to ask: is it feasible? (see our blog on feasibility and desirability).
While President Clinton had hoped Wilson would support jobs over welfare, he did not: ''The worst thing we could do,'' he [Wilson] remarked in one recent interview, ''is impose time limits and then expect people to sink or swim once they move off welfare'' (see New York Times). The White House was confused by Wilson’s reaction. It should have been expected. Wilson was skeptical and doubted neoliberal policies would propose or produce a massive jobs program. As it turned out a jobs program was not feasible. It was left up to markets to produce lowing paying fast food jobs, cleaning jobs, delivery and retail jobs. Workfare was good for Clinton politics but very bad for those depending on government safety nets. The available jobs were tedious, lacked complexity, and the limited supply of the best paying and most prestigious jobs still depended on competition for distribution. Workfare forced women into low paying jobs but without providing the kind of work and conditions necessary for self esteem and dignity. The disappearance of work is more relevant today as we face the economics of globalization, artificial intelligence, and the internet, all only barely visible when Wilson wrote nearly 40 years ago. In short, the problem of work doesn’t go away. Why?
Ten years after William Julius Wilson published When Work Disappears, Paul Gomberg (2007) published his book, How to Make Opportunity Equal, a counterargument to distributive justice. Gomberg’s criticism of distributive justice may well explain President Clinton’s disappointment in Wilson and Wilson’s skeptical views on workfare. He describes a major flaw in Rawl’s liberal conceptualization of distributive justice: the end of work is less about getting equal access to work and more about learning how to share the available work. In short, in its most abstract sense, work is never in short supply: there will always be something to do somewhere. The dominant social organization of labor, however, is the problem: it provides no norms and institutions for sharing the work that a particular era serves up, whatever type—routine (e.g., cleaning) or complex (e.g., surgery). Why can’t we care about cooperating over the work that must be done for human beings and societies to flourish? What does work mean to us? How can we reverse the norm that assumes limited supplies of work and instead promote institutions where work is viewed and experienced as unlimited? And, how is the current distribution of work racist? Our first On Caring podcast (with guest Dr. Paul Gomberg) addresses these questions. We also think you will find our podcast resources helpful. There are multiple ways to access the podcast. The easiest is to click the start button below, or download for later listening. You can access the podcast on our podcast page, and from our podcast host: Pinecast.
