ABSTRACT
The writing of a book on the good society is a subversive act. It invites comparison with the society that we actually have. And yet the material compo nents of the good society are within reach. We are prodigiously produc tive: a few percent of the working population grows all the food that we need and we are moving rapidly to the time when a few percent more will be able to make all the other necessities and conveniences that we may need or want, and no small share of the extravagances. Everyone else available for work will be free to perform services of increasing variety and possibly even usefulness. We will have a superabundance of labor to do what needs to be done: the workweek will inevitably grow shorter while private time grows longer.
