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The traditional neo-classical economic theory of labour supply can easily be applied

Figure 1: "Standard People"

The curves represent combinations of hours of work per day and wage per day to which the modelled labour supplier is indifferent (iso-utility curves): some more hours of work can always be exactly compensated by a    little more wage. A higher curve represents another set of equally valued combinations, all preferred to those on the lower curve. If the wage rate is $15 per hour, the possible earnings-hours of work combinations are given by the lowest straight line. L is the most valued combination our supplier can reach (other combinations on this straight line can only belong to curves lower than the lowest one drawn, representing less valued combinations) , and she will choose to work 6 hours for $90 a day. If the wage rate is going up to $40 per hour, then H will be her most preferred combination and she will choose to work 12 hours for $240.

Here, in the standard approach people (I call them standard people) are supposed to require money wage compensation for every hour they choose to work, right from the first hour. This can be read from the iso-utility curves: they all rise right from the start at zero hours. This is because economist are used to think of 6 to 12 hours as the range relevant for analysis. But what if labour hours become scarce and people start to face smaller quantities and units of labour demanded? This is illustrated below

                        Figure 2: U-people

In this case a worker might well become what I like to call a U-person (workalcoholic is too restrictive as a label, though workaholics are part of this group). If he, for instance, receives a daily unemployment benefit of $90 and if he would earn less if he chose to work, thus facing a negative wage rate (-2$ per hour), he would still prefer to work 4 hours! (Moreover, and this runs counter popular superstition, it could very well be that a higher unemployment benefit, causing his straght line of possible labour-income combinations to go up, would increase his labour supply!).

However! The choice depicted here is not one that workers in Westerns countries are legally allowed to make. To receive an unemployment benefit, you ought to be unable to find work. Utility maximizing is prohibited and hence the market is not allowed to work. Instead, our culture sustains value judgements, positive for those who prefer to work, and negative for those who do not prefer to work. Unlike buying cars or attending concerts, work is not supposed to be a matter of personal preference, at least not if, preferring not to work, you register for a public benefit. This touches on a limit our culture seems to set to liberalism.

For completeness: in any market there can be hopelessly workaverse people (I call them "Zero Work people") with a corner solution at zero hours of work per day: the unemployment benefit they receive at zero hours of work represents a point on the highest iso-utility curve they can reach:

                Figure 3: Zero Work People

If you wish, you can now turn to the country Eu were these different kinds of people deal with one another in quite a different way than we do. I reported on this country in the Journal of Political Philosophy: Volume 3, Number 1, March 1995, pp. 23-35.

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