 LabourDavid Reisman Chapter 9 in The Economics of Alfred Marshall, 1986, pp 197-248 from Palgrave Macmillan Abstract: Abstract ‘By Labour,’ Marshall stated, ‘is meant the economic work of man, whether with the hand or the head.’1 Man is the input and yet also the output: ‘Man himself is the chief means of the production of that wealth of which he is the ultimate aim.’2 Without the contribution of human beings the national income would not only not be rising but would not even exist: ‘In a sense there are only two agents of production, nature and man. Capital and organization are the result of the work of man aided by nature.’3 Yet as a result of that contribution, both man’s taste and man’s character are transformed and upgraded to such an extent that it would be no exaggeration to identify the chief product of labour as man himself. Besides that, activity is an important source of utility in its own right, and independent of the changes in standard of life and standard of comfort to which it leads: it is only the ‘more ignorant and phlegmatic of races and of individualsi’4 which regard it as the curse of Adam rather than, more correctly, as much-to-be-welcomed outlet for creative impulses and the instict of workmanship. Keywords: Labour Market; Trade Union; High Wage; Supply Curve; Union Leader (search for similar items in EconPapers) There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-08515-6_9 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-08515-6_9 Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.