We should gradually reduce the 40 hour week to 30 hours

[BMI]

I’ve been working 30 hours a week for ten years now and loving it....

40 hours a week is too much ....unless it’s a cushy, low stress job

[Taiko]

On the other hand I have been in the American 40 hour work week for a quarter century and on most days have been mandated to work up to 56 hours a week or more than 8 hours on a given day with the company paying me 1.5 times my base pay in penalty. And then the last cop,e of years I have been mandated to work more than 56 hours/week and 10 hours/day while getting 2 times my base pay in penalty.

Then a couple of years ago despite the rule book saying no more than 12 hours a day or 60 hours a week they have tried to mandate us past that threshold when the unit mutinied. And the employer tried to issue discipline and fired the probationary employees while the union saved the higher timed ones.

[Led Zeppelin]

Originally Posted by phetaroi

For the sake of debate, we have all read about how automation and robots are taking over many jobs. For example:

https://money.cnn.com/2017/09/15/tec...ots/index.html

So, should America reduce by 1 hour per year each year for the next decade the 40 hour work, in order to reduce the work week to 30 hours, but companies would need to increase pay proportionally to maintain the standard of living in the country?

Thoughts?

The argument will probably be an alternative trend to counter-balance or negate wage increases; whereby some will say robot production will theoretically lower and end-price costs at the mass consumer level... so that we'll have an increase in purchasing power. Or perhaps a little from both ends of the spectrum.

But there's a lot of assumptions in that argument... and inevitably a lot of unforeseen counter-balances. For one thing, we'll never increase purchasing power as long as the government continues to debauch the currency.

My thoughts are that we don't need to replace human workers for the benefit of the few. There will be enormous downward pressure to automate as much as possible down the supply chain, and rippling into the other sectors, which will create competition against humans.

Robots have a place (space exploration comes to mind), but it shouldn't be for the purpose of cutting people primarily. Not everyone desires to be a self-employed entrepreneur selling knick-knacks or maintaining factory robots for a living. Nor is there a big enough global market for semi- or unskilled human labor in a world where non-advanced human labor is shrinking. Inevitably, the solution would probably become.... population control that includes everyone except the elites.

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by Led Zeppelin

The argument will probably be an alternative trend to counter-balance or negate wage increases; whereby some will say robot production will theoretically lower and end-price costs at the mass consumer level... so that we'll have an increase in purchasing power. Or perhaps a little from both ends of the spectrum.

But there's a lot of assumptions in that argument... and inevitably a lot of unforeseen counter-balances. For one thing, we'll never increase purchasing power as long as the government continues to debauch the currency.

My thoughts are that we don't need to replace human workers for the benefit of the few. There will be enormous downward pressure to automate as much as possible down the supply chain, and rippling into the other sectors, which will create competition against humans.

Robots have a place (space exploration comes to mind), but it shouldn't be for the purpose of cutting people primarily. Not everyone desires to be a self-employed entrepreneur selling knick-knacks or maintaining factory robots for a living. Nor is there a big enough global market for semi- or unskilled human labor in a world where non-advanced human labor is shrinking. Inevitably, the solution would probably become.... population control that includes everyone except the elites.

I appreciate that you are one of the few posters who has actually remained on topic!