Work and leisure

A very interesting remark: the goal of economic development is leisure, not full employment.

"For Lonergan an increased rate of leisure, not full employment, was a more desired outcome for economic development." Lonergan got this view from Christopher Dawson. For Dawson, in the ideal case, technological innovation accelerated the rate of production of material goods; this led to increase in division of labour; and this eventually allowed for more leisure, initially for some social classes, but eventually for all. More leisure leads to cultural advances.

An unfinished goal of Lonergan's essay For a New Political Economy was to understand how economic rhythms provided a base for the advance of culture.

(See M. Shute, Lonergan's Discovery of the Science of Economics, 2010, 49.)