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Shorten the work week: Difference between revisions

Shorten the work week (view source)

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(Created page with "Throughout this past century, there has been plenty of mechanization & automation{{x|and more recently, A.I. - but that's a whole other discussion}} - i.e.: do a job more efficiently - get the same amount of work done using less labor. But instead of people ''working less'', businesses chose to ''produce more''{{x|i.e. more goods and more services, per capita}}.  Of course, in moderation this can be a very good thing - but we've long reached a point where it's harm...")
 
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Throughout this past century, there has been plenty of mechanization & automation{{x|and more recently, A.I. - but that's a whole other discussion}} - i.e.: do a job more efficiently - get the same amount of work done using less labor.
When people talk about shortening the work week, it's typical to imagine some future sci-fi society. But actually the idea has been '''viable''' for decades '''already'''.


But instead of people ''working less'', businesses chose to ''produce more''{{x|i.e. more goods and more services, per capita}}.  Of course, in moderation this can be a very good thing - but we've long reached a point where it's harming the environment, with diminishing returns on quality of life. In fact, quality of life could be a lot higher if people didn't need to work as much.
* This whole past century is full of mechanization & automation designed specifically to get more done using less labor. It's just that instead of using it to '''work less''', it's been used to {{t2|''produce more''|i.e. more goods & services, per capita. In other words, economic growth.{{pbr}}Increased production was good at some point in history, to improve quality of life - but that reached diminishing returns, while environmental impacts continued to increase. And ultimately, quality of life would be higher if people didn't have to work so much.}}.


==What to cut==
To shorten the work week, we have to be upfront about exactly what we should '''produce less of.'''
To have a world with a shorter work week, we need to be honest about what things we could produce less of.
* ''In other words'': Lower the cost of living, by getting rid of some inherent inefficiencies in the system {{light|(the type of inefficiencies that benefit no one except rich lobbyists)}}.
* '''[[We can still have nice things, just not replace them so often]]'''.
** {{rb|Note: This applies to rich countries a lot more than poor countries.}}
* Also we must be honest about '''[[bullshit jobs|what work we don't actually need done]]'''.


Then, to put this into practice in real life, we would need radical economic changes (such as socialism). Let's start a [[/Economics|discussion of how that could work]].
<big>How:</big>
* [[reduce production without causing shortages|'''Reduce production WITHOUT sacrificing anyone's basic needs''' (or anything else that matters)]].
<!-- TALK: also mention [[bullshit jobs]] somewhere here? -->
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