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Greece introduces the six day work week

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Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#71

Post by stavros »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #11

"While the 40-hour work week is still officially in place, employers are permitted to require staff to work up to two unpaid hours per day for a limited period in return for more free time." This is kind of a wild quote from the article. WTF? two hours unpaid work per day? "A supplement of 40% of the daily wage will be paid for the sixth day of labor." It's unclear to me if this means they're receiving 100% + 40% for…

What the article probably means is "they get those two hours back in lieu" and "140% pay on the sixth day".

What already has been happening in reality is that workers work ten/twelve-hour days for no overtime, and the sixth day is unpaid. We've been working six-day workweeks ever since I can remember (so at least forty years), and probably much longer than that.

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#72

Post by kostakostas »

The government service that does work inspections was soft-abolished. There is tons of immigrants that work in slavery conditions. Undocumented workers are everywhere because the taxes are too high for both workers and businesses. There was write-off of old debts for millionairs. The link below shows how government documents get stored in my home town. There are also images of people from a tax office "moving documents for storage" by throwing them out of the window to the back of a truck. We are a third world country.

https://www.lamiareport.gr/index.php/topika/item/282557-lami...

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#73

Post by jlarocco »

klysm wrote: post #9
krasin wrote: 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?

No amount of automation has ever seemed to result in a net reduction in work to do thus far

That kind of misrepresents the situation because our social and economic systems screw over the employees whose jobs are automated away.

Initially there's the same amount of work, but if they don't find something else to do, they won't be able to pay their bills or buy food, and they'll be out on the street.

So we end up with crappy, low pay service jobs that only exist so people have some way to scrape out a living.

The business owners benefit from automation, the employees lose.

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#74

Post by MiguelX413 »

echoangle wrote: post #28
klysm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No amount of automation has ever seemed to result in a net reduction in work to do thus far

Why would it? It’s not like the amount of work to do is fixed and once it’s done, everyone can relax for the rest of the year. There’s always work to do and progress just speeds up as work becomes more efficient.

Why not just stop once we've done the same work as in the past?

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#75

Post by emporas »

DougN7 wrote: post #66
emporas wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People not working at all, or working significantly less, is not acceptable by any political system of the western countries. The proof here, is the exponential rate in which debt goes up. That debt is directly funding the anti-automation each political system imposes. In other words, automation has to be stopped, and it's gonna take as much money as it needs. This anti-automation process, created the biggest bubbles…

Can you point to the triple A derivatives blowing up? I’d like to read more about that.

I replied on the other comment, but i may not be right, i don't know about financial tools and what goes up and down.

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#76

Post by MiguelX413 »

squidbeak wrote: post #47
pdimitar wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You can also have robotics without AGI, as we already do.

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#77

Post by imiric »

klysm wrote: post #9
krasin wrote: 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?

No amount of automation has ever seemed to result in a net reduction in work to do thus far

Because the gains from increased productivity have been reaped by executives, not workers. You keep working the same hours to make your bosses more money, when you could be working less instead. This income gap has been widening since the 1970s[1,2].

[1]: https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide...

[2]: https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-2018/

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#78

Post by Boltgolt »

downWidOutaFite wrote: post #52

Greece should have left the EU when the price of membership was revealed to be a generation of ruthless recession and exploitation. Somehow the german bankers convinced them it was worth it even though grexit would've been much more expensive to them then loan forgiveness. I don't see what Greece got out of EU membership other than a brain drain as their ambitious youth is forced to leave their country.

How about others in the EU bailing them out when they found out you actually can't just increase spend forever? Grexit would have been certain bankruptcy

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#79

Post by Arnt »

dotcoma wrote: post #45
cyberax wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ??

Greece has a lot of businesses with seven-day working weeks. Hotels, that kind of thing. This rule change says, AIUI, that you can't work in that kind of job and insist on a five day working week.

The money of working hours per week is unchanged.

Re: Greece introduces the six day work week

#80

Post by emporas »

exe34 wrote: post #56
emporas wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People not working at all, or working significantly less, is not acceptable by any political system of the western countries. The proof here, is the exponential rate in which debt goes up. That debt is directly funding the anti-automation each political system imposes. In other words, automation has to be stopped, and it's gonna take as much money as it needs. This anti-automation process, created the biggest bubbles…

if people have too much time on their hands, they start to organise and ask for their fair share.

Well, i know a lot about history, political systems when they are at the end of the road, no one really competent can even come close to be a leader. When an incompetent person thinks of a solution to a problem, they choose the worst solution.

In addition to that, there is also the possibility, that political systems themselves will be automated, not 100%, but close to 95% or 99%.

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