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Just one thing: In the 50s and 60s working weeks were 6 days in Germany (east and west). In the 70s this was reduced to 5 days (40 hours), and later, in the ear
by be_kul 7y ago
Just one thing: In the 50s and 60s working weeks were 6 days in Germany (east and west). In the 70s this was reduced to 5 days (40 hours), and later, in the early 80s, in West Germany even to 35 hours/week. All this was possible without reduction of wages because working productivity had grown fast enough to compensate companies for the "lost" working time. Can anyone really imagine that working productivity grew significantly LESS than it had between c. 1945 and 1980 during the last 40 years? So, where did all the extra gain go in the mean time? Higher wages? Nope. Higher pensions? Nope. longer holidays? Nope. Lower prices? Nope. They all developed over the last 40 years in a speed that kept them more or less on the same relative level than in the 1970s/80s. The only thing that grew MUCH faster was the income of the rich…
So, we should not ask, IF we wanted to work 1 day less per week, but WHY we are not doing so already? Would the rich be or at least feel much poorer than now? Does anyone of these people really know the difference between 100000000000 and 10000000000 (given, they could even pronounce these numbers correctly ;-))?
- maerF0x0 7y agoWe get paid not for value, but for replacement cost. Therefore we do not get paid for productivity but for market rates. Obviously having a high value allows the company the freedom to pay us more, but all else equal the lower cost employee will should hired
- toomuchtodo 7y agoThen we change labor law. It really is that simple (and how we are currently at a 40 hour work week).
- maerF0x0 7y agoUntil at will employment is undermined it will be hard to enforce. An employer just wont hire/retain <40 hrs & 5 day employees?
- kjaftaedi 7y agoAt-will employment is largely a US concept. The rest of the developed world does not have such things, yet 40 hour work weeks are still commonplace.
- maerF0x0 7y agoTrue, this is an interesting concept. Maybe it's due to human preference, norms, or companies' ability to shift labor? Japan has the salaryman that works much more than 40 hrs iirc.