Michael Albert proposes a 30 hour work week.  Fight ForwardSunday, July 31, 2011 What should be the approach of leftists, progressive, and anyone with even a smidgin of concern for those suffering economic distress in hard times? A debate over reducing government, cutting spending, or raising taxes has no self evidently positive aspect. More government, more spending, more taxes, all sound bad to working people. In fact, even with context added, most working people fear that larger government will be intrusive and negative. Greater spending will be boondoggles for the rich. And increased taxes will wind up coming from them. And this is indeed what would happen to such a program in the absence of powerful forces able to compel better results. But powerful forces means massive sustained public campaigns that know what they want. And demanding more government, more spending, and more taxes, won't generate that campaign. So how about as a possible focus, having a public campaign for: More Jobs, Less Work, More Pay, More Training, and Less War. It would make sense here in the U.S., I think, but also elsewhere - Greece, Spain, and in fact, pretty much everywhere. Here is the logic. (1) Current outrageous levels of unemployment horribly hurt the poor, the weak, and all those working for wages at anything less than the highest income levels. It weakens working class constituencies, and since owners profit more when workers are weak, owners and politicians who represent them try to expand unemployment. So, for a positive exit from crisis, government and society must be forced to generate more jobs. But how can that happen with people working 60 or 80 hours - as many do now? That is an ecological, climatological, and tension-inducing nightmare. So, (2) we also need Less Work - meaning we need to reduce the length of work down to, let's say, 30 hours a week. Five days at six hours a day might be a nice approach, or even four days at seven and a half hours each, where work beyond that earns overtime. This opens the way to relatively easy job creation as new workers take up the slack for workers who now have shorter schedules. We needn't add wasteful production. So now we have everyone working, but most are working less hours, creating a new problem - many folks won't earn enough in fewer hours. < snip > |
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