WORK, FAMILY, AND INCOME

The relation between work and families is undergoing extraordinary levels of change at the current time. Most of the policy discussions assume that it is possible to continue moving in the directions which dominate at the end of the century: commitment to long hours of work which then permits obtaining a high standard of living. The basic problem is that there is now overwhelming evidence that continuation of current trends is tearing cultures apart. Some are capable of earning larger and larger incomes. Those at the bottom are both money and knowledge poor. And the middle class is shrinking. If we are to benefit from the potential of today's world, we can only do so by moving outside our current thinking and asking how we want to define the quality of life in the twenty‐first century.