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On January 27 2011 07:52 exeexe wrote: Don Fitz has been surviving on less than 20 hours work per week since he was forced to retire in 2006. Is that really a good life? A long time ago I decided I wouldn't become just some destitute that does nothing with their life and tries to just get by.
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On January 27 2011 09:40 Roe wrote:Show nested quote +On January 27 2011 09:21 GreatFall wrote: I agree. I wish the work week could be shortened to 4 days. What's the point of working your entire life away then dying?? I agree. Why not just off yourself right now? What's the point to living anyways?
Oh, gimme a break.
Strawman much?
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I really feel like the work week is way too short. People can't really accomplish much in 8 hours and then you also have to support multiple time zones. I think the ideal would be about 10 hours a day. People would have a lot less stress because they would be finished with all their tasks and they wouldn't have to worry about it when they got home.
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This would just make the poor people poorer. People at my dad's work have a tough time getting by on 40 hours a week so they have to work overtime every chance they get. 20 hours a week is great if you get good pay. Try supporting a family when you're only working 20 hours a week getting paid minimum wage.
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anyone that still measures work by hours and is paid "over time" is typically not in the higher tiers of earners. You can make a fine living working less than 40 hours but your career path will be much shorter than a person who puts in the time and works beyond the 40 hours.
as you move up in the corporate ladder or career path of your choice, the hours get longer and longer. until you hit a point where your hours decrease and your pay sky rockets. are you willing to put in the work and make the sacrifice?
no? ..thats why you still work an hourly job..
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On January 27 2011 09:43 sob3k wrote:Show nested quote +On January 27 2011 09:40 Roe wrote:On January 27 2011 09:21 GreatFall wrote: I agree. I wish the work week could be shortened to 4 days. What's the point of working your entire life away then dying?? I agree. Why not just off yourself right now? What's the point to living anyways? Oh, gimme a break. Strawman much?
I sort of agree with this. I'm not sure if you the person you quoted is being sarcastic or not but I've always said if i spend more time working per week then I do just living and enjoying myself I might as well kill myself, and I actually enjoy my job for the most part. Strangely enough I actually wish my job would schedule me more hours at the moment.
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On January 27 2011 08:02 Kalingingsong wrote:Show nested quote +It should be a basic human right to not work more than 8 hours. It should be a right of the earth. yemen, it should also be a basic human right to have a girlfriend rated 8+ and above. Having a gf lower than this rating is just too cruel. User was warned for this post Yemen has a drug problem, which results in a labor problem.anyway...
A work week of 40 hours is perfectly fine for some, and for some 40 hours is way too much. Sometimes longer hours are needed and sometimes they are consuming your life with no gain.
I work 24 days straight, 4 off, 12 hour days as a construction electrician. I make a lot of money because of the hours I work. This type of shift is very common in my field, and the alternative is usually 10 days straight, four off. There are at least 4000 red sealed j-men in my province's union alone, and they all agree with 50 hour work week as a minimum.
So.. are construction electrician (along with thousands of other tradesmen in other fields ei welding, pipe fitting, etc) are unanimously greedy? No. In construction, it is very necessary for a minimum 10 hour day, because our work takes time to set up, organize, sign in, and gear up, then clean up - every day. If you worked 8 hour days, you would get 5.5 hrs of production - 2hrs of setting up (material, gearing up, safety, etc etc) and coffee breaks, and one 30 minute lunch.
Another thing to look at is that lots of people in trades don't have secondary education - some don't even have high school diplomas. These people are very valuable to society, but can not make very much money because of lack of education. In the trades, you make a slightly above or average wage - but you almost always work 10+ hour days. This is a fantastic opportunity for most uneducated people to 'get ahead of the game', and breathe easier, as we all should.
Shorter work weeks sounds glorious but I will have so much more time to spend money I don't have though. When I am middle-aged Sundays will become hell if I have Friday off too. That may not make sense to you, but just think about how much extra time you have, and how less money you will be making. Esp . in these times, short work weeks would be a major failure because of so many people looking for work, willing to give into 60 hour work weeks so they can feed their family.
One last major concern is how income tax will be affected. Obviously in a huge population like America, tax revenue would be a significant amount less for the government (haha, ya that is nice but in reality, governments need money). So, a simple change like 30 hours from 40 hours, you would see an enormous decrease in income for American government (not only the people), which would probably just result in a spike of taxes for the good American people. Last time I checked, Americans fuckin hate taxes... You know, this is kinda funny. I didn't really think about it, but shortening a work week is a brilliant political strategy that could be used as a weapon by the 'opposition' party. The idea sounds so inviting that the common people would vote for it, without thinking of consequence.. The gov't in power would have to fight pretty hard to convince opposing bureaucrats and the voters less hours is problematic (because people are stupid). Of course, if the bill were to be passed, it would fail very shortly and I couldn't see them being re-elected after another economic downfall.
In conclusion, short work weeks work in a Utopia; you can apply this system to the current one as well as you can push a square block through a circle hole.
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On January 27 2011 09:40 Roe wrote:Show nested quote +On January 27 2011 09:21 GreatFall wrote: I agree. I wish the work week could be shortened to 4 days. What's the point of working your entire life away then dying?? I agree. Why not just off yourself right now? What's the point to living anyways?
Trolling much? If you live to work then I feel sorry for you.
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Russian Federation3631 Posts
Some of the most insightful writing on hours of labor is in Karl Marx’s Capital... Oh dear. Would have been better off citing Wikipedia.
eliminating the 50% of industry that is producing nothing useful for society.
If we want our children to be able to live on this planet, the single most important environmental legislation may be restricting people from working more than 20 hours per week. Hi Paul Ehrlich.
private health insurance and pension plans must be replaced by single payer health care and a social security system with at least a four-fold expansion of payments. In case the environmental significance is not clear… Screams "I'm incapable of doing basic math"...less productivity, more expenses.
Somehow I suspect the author doesn't understand the broken windows fallacy...
the right to quality free public education which is coordinated by representatives directly elected by citizens. Why not throw in a right to a free car too?
Arthur Dahlberg, a consultant to both the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations, wrote that capitalism was already capable of satisfying basic human needs with a 4-hour work day. [20] He maintained that such a drastic cut in working hours “was necessary to prevent society from becoming disastrously materialistic.” 80 years of disastrous materialism, and America is still doing alright.
Being a consultant during the Hoover and especially the Roosevelt years probably isn't the best credentials to be throwing around. The New Deal was more of an economic abortion than the current Stimulus.
who concluded that it would be possible to have a 4-hour work day with no decline in the standard of living. This I can agree with, just look at Kim Kardashian.
If I recall, there's an elegant turn of phrase that encapsulates his argument: "Under capitalism, man exploits man, under communism, its the other way around."
PS It would be delicious irony if this guy was surviving on my tax dollars. But I wouldn't be surprised.
PPS A bucket load of citations does not a strong argument make.
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If noone worked more than 8 hours a day there wouldn't be any startups, no new enterprises and as such no new jobs.
Lower work shifts = more people working but the productivity is the same = more expenses = more taxes = more obstacles for new enterprises = less jobs.
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On January 27 2011 11:14 GreatFall wrote:Show nested quote +On January 27 2011 09:40 Roe wrote:On January 27 2011 09:21 GreatFall wrote: I agree. I wish the work week could be shortened to 4 days. What's the point of working your entire life away then dying?? I agree. Why not just off yourself right now? What's the point to living anyways? Trolling much? If you live to work then I feel sorry for you. your definition of work is different than mine. Let me clarify to soothe your troll-dar. Work is anything productive. Be it aspiring to hone your writing skills, exercising your muscles to improve your health, practicing piano, going to work and leading a meeting to advance the company's finances, or digging at the coal mine down the creek, I, conversely don't want to live to consume more than I produce. It's probably not something everyone can or should do, as in nature there are producers and consumers and each do their part well, and are needed by the other. You might find your job is an unsatisfying one, and with that I sympathize and understand where your recalcitrance is coming from. Though, what will you do with the time you don't "work"?--whichever way you define it. That is, I suppose the core of this argument.
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Work smart not hard... Follow this and profit - for real, people who grind out a dead end job with no dream for nothing more will continue to grind out a dead end job with no future.
Always strive for more, whether you work 20 hours or 70. Do something you love and the hours you work won't really matter since you're doing something you enjoy.
I started my own business even though I work a full time job. I hope to soon transition part time at my current full time job and really push my own business. I work 60-80 hours a week when you add the two together. I don't have a lot of time for other things anymore such as gaming/poker/drinking but I really can say I enjoy where I am heading.
I put in smart hours now so I can retire earlier than my peers.
Whether this means I have a heart attack at the age of 70 instead of 80 doesn't really mean shit to me. I promise you the moment in my elder years I shit my own pants I'm taking about 30 ambien's and falling asleep. Who would want to live that life?
You can live 30 years in the fast lane and experience amazing things or you can live 90 years in the slow lane staying home and grinding.
Either way it's your life and enjoy it while it lasts. Not saying one is better than the other but I would rather live fast and die early than live slow and die later.
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I remember reading your last bog entry on this subject. I don't know if I agree with you about the work issue. Sometimes these days I like coming home completely exhausted. It makes me feel good about myself.
Either way, changing how well one nation/company works will make it less competitive against other nations/companies. You may not mind working less, but your nation/company certainly will. try to find a nation/company/job that has lax work standards if you are not satisfied with your current conditions. That's the best you can do.
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