Just one hundred years ago we could see O’Henry’s little secretaries typing for ten hours a day. Weak and deprived of rights, they could be easily dismissed, experience sexual harassment or encounter health problems. They had nobody to be protected by, nobody to turn to. Dark rooms, bad air, and sitting for whole day. It was cruel, but innocent world. Hours, after work, spent in front of windows of an underwear store, cheap food and little dark rooms with gas lighting in the evenings. When she stepped outside her office, she forgot where she worked, she stayed alone with herself, she was on her own planet, she was in her own world.

Today we can see the same girl in front of the same underwear store with a mobile phone in her hand giving orders to bank or suppliers. Life has changed. Rhythm has changed. Conditions have changed. For good or bad? Our little hero can’t be dismissed anymore, just because boss’s wife doesn’t like her. She can’t be forced to make things she doesn’t want to do. There are days when she works for 16 hours, twice more than she should, but she is paid for these hours. Her office is cozy, bright, and comfortable. She can be promoted. She can be s

Sometimes I think, that those people who are leaving cities and going to the mountains in the north are right. There is the truth; there is the real silence, which will save the world. There is an air, clear and pure and sun for the whole day and moon for the whole night. Probably, only joining these people we can stop the crazy gallop we have put ourselves into.

At its best, this is the world of a shared capitalism, where employees have a real stake in their company and everyone contributes and benefits from success. At its worse, this is an insecure rat race, where employees work long hours for fear of losing their job, and hope of winning the big promotion or salary increase. And it is not just that low paid unskilled sweatshop put in long hours. The “Live to Work” vision has a consistent logic. It combines high incentives and inequality to create supply pressures for hours of work. It fits a society with highly unequal skills. It has developed in US in response to changes in technology, trade, and institutional developments (Bodin, 2001).

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