Limiting labor input is an overall prerequisite for sustainability

The purpose of the paper is to show by a simple, aggregate, descriptive model, how the importance of labor input to the production sector has to be revised in a future aiming at sustainable development. Despite substantial technological potentials for more eco-efficient utilization of nature, the starting point for this paper is that sooner or later people have to terminate the expansion of material standard of living, first in the affluent countries.

This termination might happen as overshoot and collapse of the economies or by an orderly reached satiation, as suggested here. In this gradual process the production must comply with a stagnating or declining general consumption to avoid an endless build-up of surplus production. Consequently, it becomes essential to adjust labor input to the production sector accordingly.

Temporary there are several outlets for a surplus production, for instance giving it away to countries more in need, but in the longer term the only solution is to limit the labor input to production, which is here meant as labor’s total contribution to production. This input can be split up into following factors: 1) Population, 2) Labor force fraction, 3) Working time, 4) Employ¬ment rate, and 5) Labor productivity.

The mathematical product of these five factors is the production, which must be limited at some point in time. That is a physical fact, which points towards policies often contrary to present trend in conventional growth economies, but not necessarily contrary to public attitudes. The conflict between the interests of growth economies and trends in human’s wishes points towards some democratic leverage points for a gradual transition to a sustainable development.