Book contents
- Hijacked
- Hijacked
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The Dual Nature of the Protestant Work Ethic and the Birth of Utilitarianism
- 2 Locke and the Progressive Work Ethic
- 3 How Conservatives Hijacked the Work Ethic and Turned It Against Workers
- 4 Welfare Reform, Famine, and the Ideology of the Conservative Work Ethic
- 5 The Progressive Work Ethic (1): Smith, Ricardo, and Ricardian Socialists
- 6 The Progressive Work Ethic (2): J. S. Mill
- 7 The Progressive Work Ethic (3): Marx
- 8 Social Democracy as the Culmination of the Progressive Work Ethic
- 9 Hijacked Again: Neoliberalism as the Return of the Conservative Work Ethic
- 10 Conclusion: What Should the Work Ethic Mean for Us Today?
- Acknowledgments
- Major Works Cited
- Notes
- Index
- The Seeley Lectures
5 - The Progressive Work Ethic (1): Smith, Ricardo, and Ricardian Socialists
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 September 2023
- Hijacked
- Hijacked
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The Dual Nature of the Protestant Work Ethic and the Birth of Utilitarianism
- 2 Locke and the Progressive Work Ethic
- 3 How Conservatives Hijacked the Work Ethic and Turned It Against Workers
- 4 Welfare Reform, Famine, and the Ideology of the Conservative Work Ethic
- 5 The Progressive Work Ethic (1): Smith, Ricardo, and Ricardian Socialists
- 6 The Progressive Work Ethic (2): J. S. Mill
- 7 The Progressive Work Ethic (3): Marx
- 8 Social Democracy as the Culmination of the Progressive Work Ethic
- 9 Hijacked Again: Neoliberalism as the Return of the Conservative Work Ethic
- 10 Conclusion: What Should the Work Ethic Mean for Us Today?
- Acknowledgments
- Major Works Cited
- Notes
- Index
- The Seeley Lectures
Summary
The work ethic split into conservative and progressive versions in the late eighteenth century (see Chapter 3). In Chapter 4, I argued that the conservative version triumphed through the mid-nineteenth century, an era characterized by rapidly rising productivity and stagnant wages, and hence by an increasing share of income taken by capital owners. This is what I call the hijacking of the work ethic by capital owners. The next three chapters examine the secularized progressive work ethic, developed by thinkers who sympathized with workers – not just in the sense of proposing policies they thought would help them, but also in taking seriously workers’ experiences, perspectives, and aspirations. In the liberal tradition such thinkers include Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Marquis de Condorcet and Thomas Paine. In the socialist tradition they include the Ricardian socialists – (a group of thinkers loosely connected to David Ricardo), Karl Marx, and Eduard Bernstein, the unjustly neglected pioneer of social democracy. Mill and Bernstein belonged to both traditions.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- HijackedHow Neoliberalism Turned the Work Ethic against Workers and How Workers Can Take It Back, pp. 127 - 167Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023