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> the only reason why we have 9-5, Monday to Friday jobs is because of infantile narcissists who have no other purpose in life than to go to work and push peopl

> the only reason why we have 9-5, Monday to Friday jobs is because of infantile narcissists who have no other purpose in life than to go to work and push people like machines. the current system is mainly because henry ford decided that it was the most he could make people do line work before productivity decreased and injuries increased. that of course was better working conditions of 10 hour days that the labor unions had negotiated before that. it's not impossible to forsee it going down to 32 hours or working more at home since the nature of work is different. https://www.npr.org/2021/11/05/1052968060/how-the-40-hour-work-week-became-the-norm https://www.npr.org/2021/11/05/1052968060/how-the-40-hour-wo...

vidarh 4y ago
That article is whitewashing. There were demands for 8 hour work days decades before Ford. 10 hours had become widespread, sure, and some only asked for 10, but Robert Owen's slogan "eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest" dates to 1817, and had been picked up by unions and socialist groups over the following decades. May 1st as an international day for workers demonstrations even came about as a result of the aftermath of the Chicago Haymarket Massacre in 1886 during one of the demonstrations for the 8 hour day. The then AFL proposed May 1st demonstrations as part of relaunching the fight for the 8 hour day. That some employers saw the writing on the wall and cut it to 8 with less pressure applied than others was in large part because the multiple decades long, sometimes bloody, fight for earlier cuts had shown it did not affect production anywhere near as much as opponents had claimed.
- weaksauce 4y ago
  I don't see how anything of what you said is incompatible with the article. the unions got 10 hours, probably wanted better but that's all they could negotiate. ford wanted the most profit he could get and he found that through 8 hour work days it would be the most profitable for him. he, of course like much of the capitalist class(of course not all but most of the ultra-wealthy capital owners are sociopaths), didn't care that much about workers.
  - vidarh 4y ago
    The article says "The first demand of organized labor was 10 hours - the 10-hour movement. " This is at best wildly misleading. The first demands for 10 hours was not for 10 hours labour, but for 8 hours work broken up with 2 hours for meals, and that dates back to the late 1700's. And the demands for the 8 hour day then became prominent at a time where 12, 14 or even 16 hours, and 6 day work weeks was still not uncommon. It then implies that the 8 hour work day then suddenly came about after "businesses begin studying how to increase worker productivity. And they start to find a downside to even the 10-hour day." But by the time Ford made his change, it had been one of the key rallying cries of organised labour had been demanding for a century, and Owen had tried it at New Lanark a century before, and Ford was by no means the first, just one of the most high profile. It's a common trend in the US of trying to write unions out of the history of the eight hour day. People died fighting for the eight hour day. Pinkerton - who to this day are involved in anti-union efforts - and police more than once shot workers demonstrating for it.

vidarh 4y ago

That article is whitewashing. There were demands for 8 hour work days decades before Ford. 10 hours had become widespread, sure, and some only asked for 10, but Robert Owen's slogan "eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest" dates to 1817, and had been picked up by unions and socialist groups over the following decades. May 1st as an international day for workers demonstrations even came about as a result of the aftermath of the Chicago Haymarket Massacre in 1886 during one of the demonstrations for the 8 hour day. The then AFL proposed May 1st demonstrations as part of relaunching the fight for the 8 hour day. That some employers saw the writing on the wall and cut it to 8 with less pressure applied than others was in large part because the multiple decades long, sometimes bloody, fight for earlier cuts had shown it did not affect production anywhere near as much as opponents had claimed.

weaksauce 4y ago
I don't see how anything of what you said is incompatible with the article. the unions got 10 hours, probably wanted better but that's all they could negotiate. ford wanted the most profit he could get and he found that through 8 hour work days it would be the most profitable for him. he, of course like much of the capitalist class(of course not all but most of the ultra-wealthy capital owners are sociopaths), didn't care that much about workers.
- vidarh 4y ago
  The article says "The first demand of organized labor was 10 hours - the 10-hour movement. " This is at best wildly misleading. The first demands for 10 hours was not for 10 hours labour, but for 8 hours work broken up with 2 hours for meals, and that dates back to the late 1700's. And the demands for the 8 hour day then became prominent at a time where 12, 14 or even 16 hours, and 6 day work weeks was still not uncommon. It then implies that the 8 hour work day then suddenly came about after "businesses begin studying how to increase worker productivity. And they start to find a downside to even the 10-hour day." But by the time Ford made his change, it had been one of the key rallying cries of organised labour had been demanding for a century, and Owen had tried it at New Lanark a century before, and Ford was by no means the first, just one of the most high profile. It's a common trend in the US of trying to write unions out of the history of the eight hour day. People died fighting for the eight hour day. Pinkerton - who to this day are involved in anti-union efforts - and police more than once shot workers demonstrating for it.