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Yes. Because people never made money, had full time jobs, started successful businesses and were generally miserable human beings just working to pass the time between life and death before unions were formed and government started sticking their hands into everything.
Brilliant statement.
The ONLY reason this country provides us the opportunities that it does is because we have the freedoms to do what we please. For now. I'm sure you'd rather the government and unions run everything, but the majority of us see what unions have bastardized themselves into and prefer that the government goes and re-reads the Constitution to see what their job truly is.
Apparently you're the genius since you deciphered that from one factual line that I wrote.
Oh sorry capital has it all figured out! Unions are evil!
Well there appears to be evidence that this has worked for some businesses in Norway, and it may not be a bad idea, but I think we need to look at the sociological differences between our societies (and you alluded to this in your first post) that may cause this to not work as well/work better/be the same in the US versus Norway. I don't know much about Norwegian culture, but if they have the same mindset as you posted above (one I personally agree with), I can see how they would be extremely productive in that amount of time so they can get off early and enjoy life. I think we would see the same response from a lot of Americans. There are also a lot of Americans who have the attitude that Hawkeye and ZGACK expressed (And there's nothing wrong with that attitude, we're all different in our approach to life. Their hard work is commendable) and I think that attitude may be more prevalent in the US than in other nations. This would certainly not be conducive to a short work week being implemented here successfully. And if it were to be implemented, I would look at maybe a 30 hour work week, not 21.
I guess I personally lean towards being against this, just because I don't think it is the right solution for every business and every industry. I don't think it would be a bad idea for some businesses to adopt this policy, by providing full time benefits to 30-hour a week employees in order to see what kind of results they get. I can see how, in some industries, more work can be accomplished in 6 hours than in 8 hours, just because it feels so much shorter, you're willing to work harder. One other concern though - once 6 hours became the "norm," would we all go back to our old levels of productivity because the novelty of the work day "feeling much shorter" would wear off?
I do think 21 hours is too little, and I fully agree that for some businesses and companies it's not beneficial to have a 30 day week.
The biggest problem, as I see it, with implementing this in the states is the sheer number of people there. In fact, to me, that seems to be the general problem with your job market all together. The employers have all power, because if you don't do what they say, there's 10 people waiting in line to do your job, often for less money.
Taking that into account, and it's hard to see how something like this would be possible to implement.
I think a better start, stateside, would be to offer full benefits from 30 hour weeks (but the reduced pay of working 10 hours less), set a max limit for how much someone is actually allowed to work (say 60 hours, to pick a number), this will create a demand for more staff many a place and force the market to employ more people, having a positive effect on the unemployment rate. And lastly, increase minimum wage to something you can actually live on.
I think this would be a great way to increase productivity, decrease stress, improve quality of life, among many other things. We would have more time for family and to do chores, cook healthy meals, and just enjoy life more. I think this would be a much better idea than to let people retire at age 40, which there was a thread about not too long ago. HOWEVER, 21 hours just doesn't seem like enough to keep somebody busy, in my opinion we should start by going to 30 hours and then see how that works out. What do you guys think??
I would imagine that people supporting this concept also believe that full benefits should be included in the 21 hour work week. Full benefits cost as much for a 21 hour person as for a 40 hour person (I know that there could be long term actuarial data that may be slightly different, but not much).
Therefore, the cost of goods sold would increase temendously and therefore the price to consumers. Therefore, countries with this philosophy will lose sales to countries who do not abide by this concept. Therefore, people will get the luxury of much less than a 21 hour work week (like no work week).
I guess that is why think tanks will not hire me for 21 hours a week.
I would imagine that people supporting this concept also believe that full benefits should be included in the 21 hour work week. Full benefits cost as much for a 21 hour person as for a 40 hour person (I know that there could be long term actuarial data that may be slightly different, but not much).
I think this would be a great way to increase productivity, decrease stress, improve quality of life, among many other things. We would have more time for family and to do chores, cook healthy meals, and just enjoy life more. I think this would be a much better idea than to let people retire at age 40, which there was a thread about not too long ago. HOWEVER, 21 hours just doesn't seem like enough to keep somebody busy, in my opinion we should start by going to 30 hours and then see how that works out. What do you guys think??
I agree with the 30 hour work week. Can you imagine full time pay, but only working 9 to 4 with an hour break for lunch? And seriously, in every job I've had, nobody actually works 8 hours per day except when you have a heavy work load. Cut out all the chit chat and web surfing and the average American employee at any level could get it done in a 6 hour day. Then you'd have more time with friends, family, the gym, cooking, and would have time for 8 hours sleep and a casual cup of coffee with the paper in the morning. As it is now, most people wake up and rush/scramble to get out the door.
Unions are what got you this 40 hour work week in the first place. Also, weekends.
No they're not. Unions started with good intentions, but they quickly became bastardized political machines that do more to hurt their members than help.
The saddest part of this whole thread is that you've got SO many people responding saying "I'd love to work 30 hours" and similar responses.
You CAN. You can do whatever you want in this country! Don't like your job? Work too much for too little pay? Start your own business. There are many, MANY, successful people that got out of the "worker bee" mindset and do what they want for a living. They own their own companies. They follow their passions.
And they're happy. It's not work if you love it. There are many people that got wealthy working 10 hours a week, but they do something they love and are very efficient at it. There are some that work 80 a week because they LOVE what they do and it doesn't seem like work.
Too many people complain that they're stuck in their jobs, and has to do what "the man" tells them, but that's a cop out and not true. To complain that the work week is too long is pathetic. DO something about it if you don't like the hours.
Too many people complain and not enough people get out and CHANGE what they don't like.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KevK
I have an idea- why don't we work a 36 hour week in four days of 9 hours each having 3 days a week off?
I like this idea.
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