The Politics of Hope and Fear in a Future of Less Work

The Conclusion turns to the daunting political challenges that already face big redistributive programs like those advanced here, and that will be refracted through the prism of automation. Popular anxiety about job losses might even exacerbate the divisive ethnonationalist politics that have taken hold in much of the United States (and beyond). The chapter argues for the importance of cultivating a stronger narrative of cross-racial solidarity and shared interests, and for the distinctive capacity of labor unions, grounded as they are in the fertile medium of shared work, to credibly propagate that narrative. And it argues that the strategy proposed here—centered around securing decent work (but less of it) for all—offers a broadly appealing program around which to organize diverse workers. The chapter, and the book, concludes with reflections on the future of capitalism, and the varieties of capitalism, in a future of less work.