A new survey by the National Sleep Foundation shows people are spending an average of 4.5 hours each week doing additional work from home, on top of a 9.5 hour average work day.By my count, that comes out to a 52 hour work week -- 2600 hours a year.
As I recall, the average work week was down to 40 hours in the 1946-50 period. The work week in France -- ghastly, horrible, socialized France -- is 35 hours. Similar condition are found in Germany, where workers get a full month off. Paid leave. Germans work only 1362 hours a year -- and they live better than we do.
If we adopted European ways, would we cease to be economically competitive? To answer that question, first answer this one: Which Western nations are lending money and which one is massively borrowing?
The 52 hour work week. Bring that up next time some conservative brays about the virtues of Ronald Reagan, as opposed to the liberal paradigm established by FDR.
So where is Friedmanism taking us? Back to the future -- to 1850, when Americans worked as many as 3600 hours a year.
Records indicate that work schedules as arduous as twelve to sixteen hours per day, six to seven days per week, were demanded of wage earners. This nineteenth century work schedule was the most intense work effort in the history of labor.Most of those workers lived in misery and the economy as a whole suffered from a major Depression every decade. Underpaid workers cannot afford to buy the products produced by other underpaid workers, and a population involved in ceaseless labor has no time to enjoy consumer goods.
Such is the logic of the Libertarian ideal.
4 comments:
It doesn't matter whether the average American worker works 35 hours a week, or 90 hours a week. This country cannot afford its imperial overstretch, typified by our garrisoning US troops in over 160 nations around the world. Unsustainable, unaffordable, inevitably leading to bankruptcy or war in its stead.
...sofla
Recently (2-3 yrs ago) a very large majority of the working population said they liked their jobs and their lives. Well, let's say HuffPost blogged about it in a side post. The Libertarian ideal or its political party is an outlaw enterprise, hardly different from anarchism, since it outright neglects the vicissitudes of life and the purpose of society. What would you complain about had Naderism prevailed? Libertarianism is a godless manifestation of the Protestant Ethic which enabled capitalism.
I'm a Labor sympathizer, I hate the Man; I'm proud of having been fired from every time-clock job I've had (but prouder of the times I've had the Man removed or fired).
You didn't read deep enough in that National Sleep Foundation story; its message deals with workers who don't work good or show up late owing to not sleeping so good or enough. (Incidentally, the TV ad trends - evolved from the Joe Isuzu campaigns - have been showing dumb slackoffs who get over but have fun and somehow are tolerated.)
Recessions happen when the workforce needs a kick in the ass, when workers aren't wretched enough anymore. Layoffs scare the shit out of workers, so they do what they must to keep their jobs. Horror stories for 18 months ensure that all new hires will outperform beavers. Anxiety peaks, envy ratchets up further, fears lead to hatred. Lives are ruined. The cycle continues.
There's no nightmare deprivation for moneylenders now that 'credit ratings' don't matter and untold borrowers (who have internalized the Joe Isuzu ethos) are stiffing their creditors.
Here's your toss-up: Which is easier to study and to know: Finnegan's Wake or sleep?
"It doesn't matter whether the average American worker works 35 hours a week, or 90 hours a week."
It sure matters to the schlub doing the hours, sof.
"The Libertarian ideal or its political party is an outlaw enterprise, hardly different from anarchism, since it outright neglects the vicissitudes of life and the purpose of society."
Aitch, the thing I can admire about Libertarianism is that some of the adherents of that ideology stop pretending that it works, in the sense of establishing the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Their argument slides from "It works" to "It is fair."
"its message deals with workers who don't work good or show up late owing to not sleeping so good or enough."
You're just trying to piss me off, aren't you? If so, you're doing a damned well job of it.
"Here's your toss-up: Which is easier to study and to know: Finnegan's Wake or sleep?"
Some would say that one leads to the other. Others would say that the former is a portrait of the world of the latter.
I think I get Aitch's point. If I get it then I agree. Its about selling the story, not the reality. They are spinning us a story. They or the system is "creating a reality". We can work 24 hours a day but it wont be enough. If we are not under control then the whole system is at risk. Legitimisation is the most critical aspect of this whole thing. Otherwise why would we spend our lives working to enrich bankers?
Harry
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