Guys Not everyone is in a union. How does this help anyone who works for minimum wage. Here in Victoria 21 hours at 9 to 10 dollars per hour gives 189 to 210 dollars a week; less tax, CPP, UI you're probably looking at $175 to < $200 per week - less than $800 a month which doesn't pay for a bachelor apartment let alone allow one to eat, pay for hydro, heat or anything else like clothes. This is completely unfeasible without something like the guaranteed income plan Sally speaks of or we do away with this fiction called money. Ha, Ha. Ho, Ho. Away we go.
The governments of Canada and the provinces are slashing monies to education, health and welfare so there will be a bigger and more desperate low-paid workforce. So 21 hours per week is not going to cut it. All these obtuse ideas are likely from those think tanks that prefer chaos because they feel THEY will survive to be the new planetary royalty with a whack of slaves to do their bidding or die. You think this is working in Britain? Then why so many cameras on the streets? Could it be that people are not really so happy? I don't know if some of you people live with your heads in the sand or some place darker. How do millions of people (sorry BILLIONS of people) live sustainable lives if they do not have the land and resources to create these wonderfully fanciful visions for themselves? Oh, I know, Monsanto will save us. Food for thought, Darryl Arthur Cordell wrote: > Agree. Unions could take the lead. But how does such a change take place? > Who takes the lead in going to a shorter work week. > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Sandwichman > Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 11:15 AM > To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION > Subject: [Futurework] 21 Hour work week: New Economic Foundation > > http://neweconomics.org/publications/21-hours > > 13 February 2010 > 21 hours > > Why a shorter working week can help us all to flourish in the 21st century > > A 'normal' working week of 21 hours could help to address a range of > urgent, interlinked problems: overwork, unemployment, > over-consumption, high carbon emissions, low well-being, entrenched > inequalities, and the lack of time to live sustainably, to care for > each other, and simply to enjoy life. > > Programme Areas: Social Policy > > Tags: work, well-being, unemployment, time, sustainable living, > equality, core economy, co-production, climate change > > Moving towards much shorter hours of paid work offers a new route out > of the multiple crises we face today. Many of us are consuming well > beyond our economic means and well beyond the limits of the natural > environment, yet in ways that fail to improve our well-being - and > meanwhile many others suffer poverty and hunger. Continuing economic > growth in high-income countries will make it impossible to achieve > urgent carbon reduction targets. Widening inequalities, a failing > global economy, critically depleted natural resources and accelerating > climate change pose grave threats to the future of human civilisation. > > Twenty-one hours is close to the average that people of working age in > Britain spend in paid work and just a little more than the average > spent in unpaid work. Experiments with shorter working hours suggest > that they can be popular where conditions are stable and pay is > favourable, and that a new standard of 21 hours could be consistent > with the dynamics of a decarbonised economy. > > There is nothing natural or inevitable about what's considered > 'normal' today. Time, like work, has become commodified - a recent > legacy of industrial capitalism. Yet the logic of industrial time is > out of step with today's conditions, where instant communications and > mobile technologies bring new risks and pressures, as well as > opportunities. The challenge is to break the power of the old > industrial clock without adding new pressures, and to free up time to > live sustainable lives. > > _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
