“The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery,” wrote Bertrand Russell in 1932. Meanwhile, John Maynard Keynes hailed a coming “age of leisure,” when technology would make work unnecessary. Yet as AI seemingly offers the potential to deliver that dream, many across the political spectrum are having doubts. Keir Starmer calls Labour “the party of work,” Donald Trump boasts that he has “no time for rest” and praises “the dignity of work,” while Xi Jinping recently stated hard work is “the noblest, most beautiful virtue.” Moreover, work has long been seen as the key to human flourishing by thinkers from Karl Marx to Simone Weil.
Is it time to recognise that a life of leisure is not a utopia but a vacuous waste? Is the challenge with work not to eradicate it, but to ensure that it is valuable, purposeful, and rewarding? Or could a life of leisure be harnessed to create a life of intensity, wisdom, and fulfilment, or would that just be work by another name.
