ABSTRACT
Although the level of living differs enormously across human societies, they are all work societies in the sense that a great amount of labour is needed and carried out to secure the reproduction of the population at some standard of living. The present book does not deal with all kinds of socioeconomic systems but focuses on contemporary developed capitalist societies, in which large numbers of people go to their jobs day after day, week after week, year after year, to take care of various tasks, more or less necessary for sustaining or improving the population’s quality of life. Lots of goods and services are continuously being produced and this production cannot take place without a significant quantity of work. Hence it is not surprising that a majority of the working-age population has gainful employment.
