On Economic Behavior of Workers

Adolfo Figueroa

Chapter Chapter 5 in The Quality of Society, Volume II, 2021, pp 89-110 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In capitalist societies, workers play several roles, as laborers, consumers, savers, and citizens. What are the main drives underlying workers behavior? Does the behavior reflect autonomy of drives? The unified theory of capitalism has been able to explain these roles, taken separately and taken jointly: Workers behavior are shaped by the context of power relations. This essay seeks to elaborate further on the behavior of workers, now taken jointly. A theoretical model is developed, which assumes that the major goal of workers is to attain the highest relative living standard, relative to the consumption frontier of society. This goal determines saving and tax payment behavior. Power elites, on the other hand, seek pro-growth policies and seek to control and change workers consumption behavior. Facts tend to be consistent with the predictions of the model. The model is able to explain workers consumerism and illegal behavior, and the consequent higher vulnerability of the living standards attained. Their attempt to attain higher relative living standards does not lead to social progress.

Keywords: Consumerism; Consumption behavior; Human drives; Illegal economy; Power elites behavior; Saving behavior; Workers behavior; Power relations; Unified theory of capitalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-030-79565-8_5

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-79565-8_5

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