Work, labor, and its evolution on Labor Day

From The Atlantic, a reading list on labor, work, and its evolution within the United States:

1. Were the Luddites right? When jobs are replaced by advances in technology, the regional effects can destroy social cohesion and the culture that developed around it.
2. “Pro-work” policies that approach poverty and welfare have become pillars of the conservative argument. Yet that over-estimates the number of available jobs. That welfare benefits are comfortable enough to dissuade recipients from work isn’t as empirical as it is assumed.
3. In an effort to eliminate bosses and hierarchy, worker cooperatives have been an appealing opportunity to hundreds of workplaces. The trade-offs involved in the change aren’t without negatives, however.
4. Finding meaning in a job and the incentives and structures necessary to develop purpose.
5. The business focus on happiness for profit has transformation ideas about the purpose of happiness, and other effects that result from this commercialization.
6. Unionism and anti-unionism in the contemporary economy.
7. Some companies offer a four-day work week as a perk, but others work prefer a seven-day work week. That shift has implications for who controls the Republican and Democratic Parties, and where their loyalties lie.
8. Freelance work and the “sharing economy”.
9. The last 40 years and how the labor force has changed.
10. Labor Day used to be a holiday for radical labor and general strikes — now, it’s a cause for short holidays and retail sales.

Beyond the obvious economic effects, the evolution of work has cultural and geographical effects. Those are most obvious during regional downturns, as the Midwest has seen, or throughout Appalachia with the decline of coal. The upswing has been seen in North Dakota with shale and natural gas. With the narrow focus in politics on the latest unemployment numbers or monthly GDP changes, deeper and longer effects have been ignored or misread.

It’s extraordinarily difficult to know what to expect, as economics is not a predictive science. (The old joke that economists have predicted eight of the last three recessions emphasizes the difficulty of comprehending complex human behavior). Yet, on a social level, understanding reality as it is and which direction it is heading is crucial for a nation.