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This solution will not work for many jobs. There are some jobs where it doesn’t make sense to work less time during a day. And where you more than less need to

by bnjms 6y ago

This solution will not work for many jobs. There are some jobs where it doesn’t make sense to work less time during a day. And where you more than less need to work often so you don’t go dull. Medicine in hospitals are one. Drs in threads like this will acknowledge the long hours are bad but required to minimize handoffs. In IT project work is naturally optimized to minimize the number of people required to put in new systems. And I’m going to offer to work more for more money most of the time. I think some form of UBI would be better but I can’t yet imagine the required changes to society required to keep it from a dystopia. Maybe the two ideas work better together. Since to me only a poverty level UBI makes sense. But lowering the base hours to 30-35 before overtime kicks in with a low UBI might have an interesting outcome where people still need to work but don’t have to work, and more employees are required.

tsimionescu 6y ago
I see no reason to imagine 40 hours a week is some special number. If we could go from 60h weeks to 40h weeks, why stop there even as productivity increases? Note that overtime is still possible, but needs to be paid. But as a general rule, the increased benefits from automation should be felt by workers too, not just owners. Of course, once you get to 100% automation this simple reduction in hours worked for the same pay breaks down, but few industries are even remotely close to that. Edit: doctors in hospitals are a very special case, I think. It is one of the only jobs where the increased strain on the worker can be accepted, as it doesn't simply produce profit, it produces much more important human good. Even more, the problem in Healthcare is definitely not lack of jobs, on the contrary - there are generally either not enough doctors or not enough resources to pay for more doctors (and nurses, and other medical personnel).

by bnjms 6y ago

tsimionescu 6y ago

I see no reason to imagine 40 hours a week is some special number. If we could go from 60h weeks to 40h weeks, why stop there even as productivity increases? Note that overtime is still possible, but needs to be paid. But as a general rule, the increased benefits from automation should be felt by workers too, not just owners. Of course, once you get to 100% automation this simple reduction in hours worked for the same pay breaks down, but few industries are even remotely close to that. Edit: doctors in hospitals are a very special case, I think. It is one of the only jobs where the increased strain on the worker can be accepted, as it doesn't simply produce profit, it produces much more important human good. Even more, the problem in Healthcare is definitely not lack of jobs, on the contrary - there are generally either not enough doctors or not enough resources to pay for more doctors (and nurses, and other medical personnel).