Why Do We Work?

Socialists are obsessed with eliminating the need to work. They contend that it amounts to coercion that is oppressive. However, they fail to understand the implications of what it means to choose to work and why working is a necessary part of life.

Working in the context of a job refers to exchanging labor for money. Most jobs work on a voluntary basis where an employer and employee agree upon the nature of the work and wages to be paid. Such an agreement is found because an employer realizes he values the labor of the employee more than the wages he must pay, while the employee realizes he values his wages more than the amount of work he must contribute to his job. When these conditions are satisfied, a job is created, and work occurs in exchange for monetary compensation.

Businesses do not hire people for no reason. They must do so because they make a profit from selling goods or services to consumers, and labor is required to produce what they sell. Companies understand that they benefit from spending on their employees’ wages as the employees’ contribution in the production process is instrumental to the success of the company. So long as the companies’ revenues are greater than their expenditures, they find hiring employees to be worth their while.

The same is true for employees. Despite the contention of socialists that workers are coerced into their jobs, most workers are free to leave at any time or once their employment period ends. Further, they are free to not join their job at all if they find the conditions of an employment opportunity to be undesirable. The truth is that employees also consider their inputs and outputs while accepting or declining a job. The input is the wage they are paid while the output is the amount of labor they must put in. This means that employees consider the disutility of working and the utility of what they can purchase with what they are paid. If employees find jobs in which they are adequately paid for their contribution and believe that accepting the job is their best choice, the job offers will be accepted. Conversely, if potential employees believe that the possible utility gain does not outweigh the disutility of working, they will not accept the job offers.

It is true that most people require some money to buy necessities so that they may live, but that does not invalidate the free market determination of wages nor the nature of jobs. Production precedes consumption, and something must be produced before it can be consumed. All conscious action requires the evaluation that the action will lead to a better set of circumstances than the current ones, which justify the effort of the action. This sort of evaluation is necessary for humans since human action is purposeful. Even if one were on an island with all resources abundant, exertion would still be required. Eating grapes would still require one to travel to where the grapes are, pluck them and then physically consume them. If one did not believe that the grapes were worth the effort, he would not choose to act.

People choose to work jobs because they realize that working is beneficial for them and not because they are oppressed. The employer-employee relationship in a free market is mutually beneficial and allows both to gain more than they lose. An arrangement in which one chooses to work because he feels the reward is worth more than the disutility of his labor can hardly be called parasitic. People choosing to work is not an indictment of the free market; it is a testament to cooperation between humans that leads to greater productivity.