ABSTRACT
In contemplating an alternative social system of accumulation and social division of labor, a firm understanding of the history and development of contemporary market economies is imperative. This chapter therefore investigates the historical development of the idolatry of paid work. As an important corollary, it also references the social acceptance of the pursuit of economic gain and the acquisition of private property. It begins with the social and religious origins of private property and the work ethic and concludes by examining the role of the discipline of economics in re-enforcing the work fetish through its ethnocentric promotion of “economic man.”
