Sever Voinescu: How we work

"Every man is a king at the center of the Universe,

which belongs to him until everything collapses for him."

Eugène Ionesco

An article from The New York Times tells me two new things. Perhaps others knew, I did not. The first: the global economy's growth rate has significantly slowed down in recent decades. I check. I find an eloquent graph on the World Bank's website. Indeed, consistent rates of economic growth seem to have stopped around the mid-1970s. Moreover, after the 2000s, so during our lifetimes, the global economy has recorded two moments of recession (the economic-financial crisis of 2008-2010 and the COVID crisis of 2020). Such moments (strangely called "negative growth" by economists) have never occurred since humanity recovered from the catastrophe of World War II, the graph shows. Therefore, yes, the overall growth rate has not been as sustained in our lifetimes as it was before. The cause of this slowdown is best seen in another indicator called "labor productivity," which essentially indicates the economic value added per hour of work. The global labor productivity graph is downright depressing. Since the mid-1970s, the downward trend is evident. More plainly, since the mid-1970s, labor produces less and less economic value. The main cause, experts say, is that the share of services in the economy has increased enormously. Today, more than half of humanity's workforce is employed in services. However, labor productivity in services – it is known – increases very slowly, much more slowly than in industry.

By the way, I find the semantic expansion of the noun "industry" amusing. Today, even artists are workers in industry ("creative industries"). In short, let’s not digress. Therefore, from the perspective of the workforce, humanity is increasingly dedicating itself to services and diminishing its commitment to areas that raise economic productivity, such as industry. Moreover, the phenomenon of deindustrialization is evident, whether we are talking about the most developed economies in the world or those chronicled in a stage once called "developing."

The changes are, in fact, in our minds. We need much more protection, care, and pleasures (because that is what services generally offer). Work has become such a vague notion that it can mean anything. I recently heard a model saying she had some intense workdays: she dressed in dresses and was photographed by some photographers. Work! The most notable change in the world economy is the reduction of working time coupled with the rapid increase in wages. It seems that the fundamental purpose of technological development is precisely this: for man to work less, for the "machine" to do everything that man does and even much better than he can. With the development of Artificial Intelligence, everyone is already asking themselves: well, what will man do when AI and robots will be able to do almost everything? With a characteristic ease of our species, most people are happy imagining they will live over a hundred years in perpetual vacation. My opinion is the opposite: I believe that if people no longer work and will have, so to speak, free time, rather than vacations and strolls, they will wage wars, and amplify misfortunes, and create more and more false problems (that is, problems that simply did not exist in the era when they worked).

I hasten to specify that I am not a supporter of growth as a measure of success. On the contrary, I am frightened by the ultra-capitalists who believe that success means growing by 20% a year regardless of anything. But the idea that work is no longer an activity that brings economic value, but something else (what?) and the idea that the world economy is growing more slowly, more difficult against the backdrop of declining labor productivity deserves more attention not only from (macro)economists but also from sociologists, anthropologists, or even philosophers. These realities speak of major changes taking place in the people of our time. A recent study popularized by euronews.com indicates that in Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012), almost no one wants to be a leader, boss, or head of an organization or any group. Only 6% admitted to such ambition. The study referred to future trends in the labor market, but I do not read this option merely as a problem related to labor relations and do not see just a certain educated generation lacking any major ambition outside of that of fluffy comfort. I see a huge trend towards dereliction of responsibility; young people no longer want to assume responsibilities, whereas work itself is a responsibility, before being a physical or intellectual effort. About 2,000 years ago, in a letter sent to the Christian community in Thessalonica, the Apostle Paul, the fundamental man of Christianity, wrote that he who does not want to work should not eat. Strong, isn’t it? Recent socialists would say it’s a rapacious capitalist and not a merciful Christian. But this is, in fact, Christianity. I emphasize, it is about he who does not want to work, not about he who cannot! Work was a human value above all, and if we agree that Christianity means a re-foundation of humanism of a depth and novelty still unmatched in the history of the world, then we must admit that work is a major humanist value. However, this very value is abandoned in our time.

Now, if you allow me, I will take a quick look into our own yard. Studies show that Romanians account for the most working hours in Europe, in any interval you measure. At the same time, studies show that the total duration of a Romanian's engagement in the labor market is the lowest in Europe (32 years, on average – for comparison, in the Netherlands it is 44 years, on average), but also that labor productivity in Romania is the lowest in Europe. Apparently, it is a contradiction. But it is not. We work in a hurry. I will return to this subject because it says a lot about how we feel and about how we will be.

https://www.dilema.ro/tilc-show/cum-muncim