Hijacked: How Neoliberalism Turned the Work Ethic Against Workers and How Workers Can Take It Back

Elizabeth Anderson. Cambridge Univ., $29.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-009-27543-9

University of Michigan philosophy professor Anderson (Private Government) argues in this searing intellectual history that American attitudes toward productivity can be traced back to 17th-century moral reasoning. The philosopher John Locke, who supported “the interests of ordinary workers” for much his life, grew to believe that all unemployed people needed to be harshly punished and denied charity if they ever were to learn how to contribute to society. Locke’s “moral disaster” signifies, according to Anderson, a broader rift between Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment moral philosophy, which she characterizes as the difference between the conservative work ethic— whose supporters, including philosopher Jeremy Bentham, “expect workers to submit to despotic employer authority”—and the progressive work ethic espoused by such thinkers as John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx, who “oppose classbased duties and rights, and reject the stigmatization of poverty.” Anderson briskly recounts centuries of debate to show how the conservative framing gained prominence over time, culminating in today’s era of regressive tax schemes and gutted welfare programs. The classical liberal view that “by far the most important product of our economic system is ourselves” should be restored, Anderson argues, or else democracy itself is at risk, as ever more of average Americans’ personal liberty and self-determination is usurped by workplace demands. As rigorous as it is approachable, this poignant plea for worker dignity contextualizes one of today’s most salient economic issues. (Sept.)