Parkinson’s Swedish Law

As battles rage in America regarding the rise of the minimum wage, a letter to the editor of The Economist contains good advice (indirectly) from C. Northcote Parkinson:

Parkinson’s Swedish Law

Bartleby’s column on pointless tasks mentioned Parkinson’s Law: work expands to fill the time available [June 2nd, 2018]. C. Northcote Parkinson invented another, not-quite-so-famous law when he gave a speech to the Swedish Employers’ Confederation in 1980.

“Aim at prosperity and employment will follow.
Aim at employment and you will get anything but prosperity.”

That is still good advice for parties trying to combat unemployment. Parkinson called it his Swedish Law.

CARL-JOHAN WESTHOLM
Uppsala, Sweden