The Latent Benefits of Work

Each year, the White House Council of Economic Advisers publishes the Economic Report of the President. The CEA is led by politically appointed academics, and thus you need to take it as given that the annual report will be supportive of the presidential administration. On the other side, the academic economists are there for relatively short-term appointments (typically a few years), and will typically be returning to academia, so in making their arguments, their reputation for making arguments based on evidence and theory is (at least somewhat) at stake. In the 2026 Economic Report published earlier this year, Chapter 9 is titled “Work Means More Than Making a Living: Labor, Challenges, and Opportunity,” and it starts with a discussion of what it calles the “latent” value of work, focused on dimensions beyond quantities produced and compensation paid. The report argues: Work is a center of meaning, a means of identity and purpose, and a powerful node of human relationship and…