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Japan’s work culture is crazy. Everyone works too many hours and is NOT productive. It seems like the easiest problem in the world to solve for them, give peopl

Japan’s work culture is crazy. Everyone works too many hours and is NOT productive. It seems like the easiest problem in the world to solve for them, give people back some time in their day, enjoy life more, and get more productivity. That said, Keynes predicted we’d have a 20 hour work week by now in the US, and when exactly does that happen.

WilliamEdward 7y ago
When you become conscious of the fact that your employers are not going to graciously give a 20 hour work week to you and you need to take it for yourself.
zeroonetwothree 7y ago
To be fair, if you wanted the standard of living of the 1930s you can achieve that with 20 hours/week of minimum wage. Average income was around $8-9k at that time.
- api 7y ago
  True if you add that you won't likely be able to live in certain cities or expensive towns. But that leaves most of the country. There are some really beautiful places you can live that are not expensive. Check out the Appalachians if you like to live in a misty postcard, and the stereotypes are largely false. Your neighbors are more likely to be artists or organic farmers than the characters from Deliverance. (I used to live in Asheville which is moderately expensive but you don't have to go far from town and it gets cheap.)
- jotm 7y ago
  If you work remotely and/or live in some small village. Otherwise, that's not enough to pay electricity, rent, food and transportation. Minimum wage is far behind the costs of even basic living (in most of the developed world, anyway).
TrackerFF 7y ago
Japan suffers from a cultural problem, mainly that you're judged by how much you work. It's like the Puritan work ethic, where idleness and not working was seen as sin. The penalization or reward curve seems to be highly asymmetric. If you work hard, you're barely getting rewarded - it's what is expected. But if you slack even a bit, you'll get penalized harshly. This leads to fear-driven management, where employees will put up with all kinds of bullshit, as well as just looking like they're working, in fear of getting sacked or limiting their career opportunities.

WilliamEdward 7y ago

When you become conscious of the fact that your employers are not going to graciously give a 20 hour work week to you and you need to take it for yourself.

zeroonetwothree 7y ago

To be fair, if you wanted the standard of living of the 1930s you can achieve that with 20 hours/week of minimum wage. Average income was around $8-9k at that time.

api 7y ago
True if you add that you won't likely be able to live in certain cities or expensive towns. But that leaves most of the country. There are some really beautiful places you can live that are not expensive. Check out the Appalachians if you like to live in a misty postcard, and the stereotypes are largely false. Your neighbors are more likely to be artists or organic farmers than the characters from Deliverance. (I used to live in Asheville which is moderately expensive but you don't have to go far from town and it gets cheap.)
jotm 7y ago
If you work remotely and/or live in some small village. Otherwise, that's not enough to pay electricity, rent, food and transportation. Minimum wage is far behind the costs of even basic living (in most of the developed world, anyway).

TrackerFF 7y ago

Japan suffers from a cultural problem, mainly that you're judged by how much you work. It's like the Puritan work ethic, where idleness and not working was seen as sin. The penalization or reward curve seems to be highly asymmetric. If you work hard, you're barely getting rewarded - it's what is expected. But if you slack even a bit, you'll get penalized harshly. This leads to fear-driven management, where employees will put up with all kinds of bullshit, as well as just looking like they're working, in fear of getting sacked or limiting their career opportunities.