A couple of points: the report also talks about the need to fix the
maldistribution of income and the "21 Hours" is a standard to be
reached over a ten year transition. The "obtuse idea" of a shorter
work week is a response to the observation that people in Britain are
not so happy with the way things are now.
Several dismissive phrases in your comment ("obtuse ideas,"
"completely unfeasible," "your heads in the sand or some place
darker," "fanciful visions"), Darryl, lead me to wonder if perhaps you
have jumped to conclusions about what problems the report does or
doesn't acknowledge and address without actually reading the report.
What I suspect is that your strong negative response to the mere idea
is emotional and paradoxically results from a deeper ambivalence
toward it. That is to say you are wary of being "seduced" by the
notion's appeal and thus your emotional rejection of the idea is
stronger than the reasons you come up with for objecting to it.
The notion of left-wing think tank researchers aspiring to be a "new
planetary royalty with a whack of slaves to do their bidding" is, to
put it kindly, delusional. In the first place, being a social policy
researcher is not a terribly upwardly mobile career choice. In the
second, the role of planetary royalty is already occupied by Goldman,
Sachs and friends.
You know that warning on rear-view mirrors that "objects may be closer
than they appear"? The warning assumes that you already adjust for two
other features of mirrors: first, the objects in the mirror are behind
you, not in front of you; and second, "left" and "right" are reversed.
As in a mirror, you seem to be projecting blame for the problems we
have now on those who have the temerity to propose solutions to those
problems.
What fascinates me is how ubiquitous this "mirror thinking" is.
On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 11:42 PM, Darryl or Natalia
<[email protected]> wrote:
> 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.
>>
>>
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Sandwichman
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