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Greece introduces the six day work week

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Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#41
post #2

6 days used to be normal generations ago, and still is in many parts of the world. Perhaps we're just in a golden age that's about to end.

Maybe it's just a Greece thing. I notice that other EU countries are doing a lot better than them economically; not sure why Greece in particular seems to be struggling.

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#42

AGI and General Purpose robots are both so far off in the future they should be considered science fiction at this point. The "Woz Standard" - a robot is dropped in front of a random house and proceeds without any assistance to brew a cup of coffee - is hard to imagine being met before 2040, if not even later.

AGI and Robotics are separate things, and Robotics still being far off doesn't mean AGI is also.

They are only separate in the strict dictionary sense. You can't have an efficient general robot if it is not handled by a general-ish AI.

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#43
post #7

Two things happen at the same time: 1. people say that robots are taking all the jobs 2. countries raise retirement age & adopt 6 day work week, because there's too much work to be done I am not entirely sure, but maybe robots are not that bad, assuming appropriate taxation to fund pensions & 5-day work weeks?

3. Greece's unemployment rate is almost 11%. What a bizarre situation.

Eh, I suspect it is way lower and much of it is just welfare/tax fraud.

When I was there, they gave huge cash discounts for everything.

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#44
post #2

6 days used to be normal generations ago, and still is in many parts of the world. Perhaps we're just in a golden age that's about to end.

Funny how not that long ago everyone used to predict that with the increases of productivity worldwide we'll keep reducing our workload to a point where we'll work just few hours a week and remain just as productive. And it seems that this has happened for a select few but everyone else is working more and more just to afford rent and basic necessities.

And anxiety over affording those necessities leads to drops in productivity.

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#45
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3. Greece's unemployment rate is almost 11%. What a bizarre situation.

It's a whole bunch of toxic factors working synergistically. The Greek economy is dominated by low-wage tourist-oriented businesses, a whopping 20-30% of employed people are directly involved in them. And they have to compete against Turkey, Egypt, and other low-income countries. These businesses simply cannot pay high salaries, there's no profit margin for it. So people don't want to work in these miserable conditio…

...and so they make it mandatory to work 6 days a week ??

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#46

AGI and General Purpose robots are both so far off in the future they should be considered science fiction at this point. The "Woz Standard" - a robot is dropped in front of a random house and proceeds without any assistance to brew a cup of coffee - is hard to imagine being met before 2040, if not even later.

I like making coffee.

Cleaning my bathroom seems like a better benchmark.

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AGI and Robotics are separate things, and Robotics still being far off doesn't mean AGI is also.

They are only separate in the strict dictionary sense. You can't have an efficient general robot if it is not handled by a general-ish AI.

But you can have AGI in advance of (or without) Robotics.

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#48
post #20

I'm confused because economically it doesn't add up. Shortages of labor should lead to higher wages. Supply and demand. So it would make sense to relax laws prohibiting working more than 40hrs in order to unleash additional economic output i.e. increase the amount of money made. The article claims that for some reason that defies logic, it will just make employers demand more work for same amount of money. I see two…

or maybe economics is the study of spherical cows trading fungible goods and services in an efficient market with perfect information, and the real world is none of those things.

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#49
post #2

6 days used to be normal generations ago, and still is in many parts of the world. Perhaps we're just in a golden age that's about to end.

Funny how not that long ago everyone used to predict that with the increases of productivity worldwide we'll keep reducing our workload to a point where we'll work just few hours a week and remain just as productive. And it seems that this has happened for a select few but everyone else is working more and more just to afford rent and basic necessities.

> And it seems that this has happened for a select few

It's happened for anyone that owns housing without a mortgage in a wealthy country.

Everyone else has to work full-time to pay their landlord or bank. Given the housing stock is kept artificially low, all remaining money in the average paycheck will necessarily be eaten up by housing. It doesn't really matter how productive the economy is. If shelter is kept scarce, the cost of housing will keep rising to eat up the rest of the average paycheck.

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#50

Isn't Greece's unemployment rate the highest in the E.U.? Yes, they may be "low-quality" workers applying for jobs, but if a company can't find "high-quality," they must make do. How did we lose the art of training new hires?

The problem with training new hires is that they can leave with the the skillset you invested in them. I realize of course that employer loyalty erosion may be in large part to blame for that being a big risk, but the issue should be acknowledged in an era of increased job switching.
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