Biographical note: GreenFrancis: Francis Green, Professor of Economics at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, is the coauthor of "Education for Training and Development in East Asia" and "Education, Training, and the Global Economy", and the coauthor or editor of nine other books. He...

Since the early 1980s, a vast number of jobs have been created in the affluent economies of the industrialized world. Many workers are doing more skilled and fulfilling jobs, and getting paid more for their trouble. Yet it is often alleged that the quality of work life has deteriorated, with a...