This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, February 22, 2019. I'm Caleb Brown.

The dignity of work is important, but over the long term that dignity of work must be tied to the genuine value of the work.

That's according to Cato's Ryan Bourne, we spoke this week.

When we think about work and the value of work, when conservatives talk about it, and

even when many libertarians talk about it they talk about that there is

dignity and work that is productivity helps people with self-esteem that in addition

to the money that it provides, it gives you a sense of contributing and it gives

you a very real or imagined sense that you're providing for your family and this really helps people

one stay in the workforce and not get bogged down in in minor distractions that

keep them from grappling with their actual substantive problems in life.

So what's wrong with this notion applied more broadly as some people want to.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with it.

I think there's a lot to that argument.

Clearly, going out to work provides structure for many people's lives.

I do think that the ability to provide for one and one's family

is important in self-worth and self-realization terms, so I don't doubt any of that.

Work definitely does have instrumental value in kind of being a provider for your family and that's a good thing.

Where I think people like Conservative scholar Oren Kasts go too far is that I think the dignity

at work comes from a broader sense of what work is about

than working for the sake of providing for one's family or one's community.

And that is for work to be inherently dignified, I think work has to be

genuinely useful and socially productive and people get a sense of self-worth from realizing

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