Nonfinancial Economics: The Case for Shorter Hours of Work [Hardcover]

Eugene McCarthy (Author), William McGaughey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 19, 1989 | ISBN-10: 0275925145 | ISBN-13: 978-0275925147

This book is written in support of proposals to reduce work time in order to improve employment opportunities. The authors, both of whom have been deeply involved in shorter workweek policy debates, argue that the failure of the U.S. to enact shorter workweek legislation when it was first proposed in the late 1950s was a significant policy mistake. They argue further that reduced work hours are an effective means to full employment, improved income distribution, and a stronger consumer market--in addition to promising a better life to the contemporary American family. Policymakers concerned with employment issues as well as trade union officials and students of industrial relations will find here a new framework of ideas to support the renewed consideration of shorter workweek legislation. The authors approach their subject by analyzing the consequences of the U.S. rejection of shorter workweek proposals over the past 30 years. Among them, they contend, are an increasing polarization of incomes, the devotion of more and more resources to the support of economic waste, and a continuing problem with unemployment. The current preoccupation with dollar-denominated growth (a legacy from the Great Depression) has produced a debt-ridden system which increasingly fails to accomodate people's real needs: hence, the authors call for a "nonfinancial" analysis of economic questions. Taken as a whole, this volume offers both an eloquent defense of leisure and a cogent analysis of the beneficial economic effects of the institution of a shorter workweek or longer annual vacation.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

EUGENE McCARTHY, during his long and distinguished career, has been at the forefront of policy discussions involving the shorter work week

WILLIAM McGAUGHEY, a CPA, is a cost accountant for a public transportation agency. His previous works include A Shorter Workweek in the 1980s.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 244 pages
• Publisher: Praeger Publishers (May 19, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275925145
• ISBN-13: 978-0275925147
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,863,418 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In 1948 Eugene McCarthy was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served five terms. He was the first congressman to publicly challenge the vicious antiCommunist attacks of Senator Joseph McCarthy and was instrumental in the creation of the Democratic Study Group, which set forth a liberal program of action for the Democratic Party. McCarthy was a member of the famed "Class of 1958," one of 13 liberal Democrats who defeated incumbent Republicans in that year. He ran against President Lyndon Johnson in the 1969 election as an antiwar candidate, and his campaign mobilized thousands of young people across the nation, changing the face of presidential campaigns, and the Democratic Party forever.