We know that people work in order to earn money to live; it is through paid work that basic needs are satisfied because it provides money for subsistence (food, housing, clothes, and so on). However, there is major problem to accepting this argument as it stands: can we really talk about the need to work for the purpose of subsistence when most developed societies provide a welfare system that prevents people from falling below the basic level of subsistences?
In Western capitalist economics it is not simply the case that people need to work to subsist; rather, people work to earn money to acquire consumer power. Money is the means to the goal of consumption, whether that be commidity consumption (mobile, dishwasher, houses and so on) or service consumption (Gambling, eating out, drinking, holidaying and so on). The central distinguishing feature between those people in work and those who are unemployed is that the former have much higher levels of consumer power, and consequently more choice about their lifestyles.
In Western capitalist economics it is not simply the case that people need to work to subsist; rather, people work to earn money to acquire consumer power. Money is the means to the goal of consumption, whether that be commidity consumption (mobile, dishwasher, houses and so on) or service consumption (Gambling, eating out, drinking, holidaying and so on). The central distinguishing feature between those people in work and those who are unemployed is that the former have much higher levels of consumer power, and consequently more choice about their lifestyles.
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