Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 367 posts

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#131

Post by dfxm12 »

ativzzz wrote: post #79
RiverCrochet wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had an interesting discussion with my nephew about this post. He angers me with the way he talks about stuff, but I consider it an exercise in mental fortitude. Allow me to share his absolutely crazy and unreasonable thoughts on this: "Nobody really wants more people except certain religious sects, and that is only because it allows them to use sexuality to control people. Most modern capitalists would favor automa…

He's not totally wrong, just replace "Religious organizations" with "Governments" and "tax-free status" with "solders and workers"

Not exactly, because "governments" are expressly capitalist. While you're right in that governments and capitalists want this type of fodder, OP's nephew is wrong in his assessment of modern capitalists.

As an aside, some religions do teach a duty to be fruitful and multiply. While I don't think capital G "Government" cares who does or doesn't procreate in their country, there are large organized political groups that promote this for strictly ethno-nationalist reasons.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#132

Post by yieldcrv »

orangecat wrote: post #109
reverendsteveii wrote: post #29

I feel like it's been a long time fretting over falling birth rates and this is the first time I've seen anyone float the idea that making life better for people might make them a bit more inclined to make more people.

It's actually that life is too good for childless people, especially when they're wealthier. Take a DINK couple with high paying jobs, say an engineer and an attorney. Without kids they can have a nice house or condo, regularly take great vacations, and still be saving enough to have the option of retiring in their 40s or 50s. But with kids, that mostly goes out the window. The societal expectation is that you should…

It was actually just last month that I saw one of these falling birthrate articles actually acknowledge that many people just don't want kids, it was in the NY Times too

I'm glad we are finally getting representation on that instead of all these social science studies contorting themselves to come to a child-aspiring default that couples are somehow failing to reach

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/11/well/family/grandparent-g...

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#133

Post by maest »

kortilla wrote: post #116
encoderer wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fascinating. Is the loyalty reciprocated?

It’s basically the same model as social security is supposed to be. It’s reciprocated societally by you putting in lots when you’re young and then you get the benefits when you’re old.

That's tremendously reductionistic.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#134

Post by colechristensen »

7thaccount wrote: post #2

That sounds....huge. I know many working couples where one would probably take that in a heartbeat. You lose some money, but gain more family time and sanity. Having Friday to finish chores and being able to enjoy the weekend unstressed is huge, not to mention clocking out early each day to be able to pick up your kid and not have to get back to work or whatever.

A long time ago when I was an intern at a defense contractor my boss was a woman who had worked her whole career 30 hours a week and was very happy about it, kept it up even when her kids were graduating high school.

I also enjoyed the 9/80 schedule there, nominally 9 hour days with a little flexibility with every other Friday off for everyone.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#135

Post by agnishom »

dfxm12 wrote: post #129

Shorter hours for less pay feels like a trap for salaried workers, unless your duties are also very formally lessened. I know people who have been granted similar schedules, but their managers simply expected them to get the same amount of work done, but in less time, for less pay.

I agree. If I made 20% less money and worked 20% less at my main job, I would still need to make up for that 20% of my income. That could be a difficult position to be in.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#136

Post by cosmic_cheese »

orangecat wrote: post #109
reverendsteveii wrote: post #29

I feel like it's been a long time fretting over falling birth rates and this is the first time I've seen anyone float the idea that making life better for people might make them a bit more inclined to make more people.

It's actually that life is too good for childless people, especially when they're wealthier. Take a DINK couple with high paying jobs, say an engineer and an attorney. Without kids they can have a nice house or condo, regularly take great vacations, and still be saving enough to have the option of retiring in their 40s or 50s. But with kids, that mostly goes out the window. The societal expectation is that you should…

There’s also some number of couples whose ideal is “no compromises” — that is, they hope to both provide the best for their kids and keep the nice house, vacations, comfortable retirement, etc.

While this isn’t strictly impossible, it’s well beyond the reach of most, and so I suspect that this group mostly ends up never having kids.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#137

Post by agnishom »

Surprisingly progressive policy.

I know this is mostly tangential, but I think that this should be the way humanity should benefit from technology. Better technology shouldn't just exist to make capitalists richer, but it should exist to make everyone richer. One of the most important ways you can be richer is to have more time.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#138

Post by dividefuel »

orangecat wrote: post #109
reverendsteveii wrote: post #29

I feel like it's been a long time fretting over falling birth rates and this is the first time I've seen anyone float the idea that making life better for people might make them a bit more inclined to make more people.

It's actually that life is too good for childless people, especially when they're wealthier. Take a DINK couple with high paying jobs, say an engineer and an attorney. Without kids they can have a nice house or condo, regularly take great vacations, and still be saving enough to have the option of retiring in their 40s or 50s. But with kids, that mostly goes out the window. The societal expectation is that you should…

I agree with this as the main factor (over cost) for the falling birth rate. The opportunity cost of having children has never been higher: you give up leisure, hobbies, rest, social life, and income. Whether or not children is worth this cost is a personal thing, but it seems kinda obvious that as the cost increases, fewer will pay it.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#139

Post by colechristensen »

orangecat wrote: post #109
reverendsteveii wrote: post #29

I feel like it's been a long time fretting over falling birth rates and this is the first time I've seen anyone float the idea that making life better for people might make them a bit more inclined to make more people.

It's actually that life is too good for childless people, especially when they're wealthier. Take a DINK couple with high paying jobs, say an engineer and an attorney. Without kids they can have a nice house or condo, regularly take great vacations, and still be saving enough to have the option of retiring in their 40s or 50s. But with kids, that mostly goes out the window. The societal expectation is that you should…

The parents I've seen seem to spend every waking second doting on their children for at least a decade, which seems strange to me. This hovering "what can I do to satisfy your desires" literally just constantly (I've also seen people doing this with their dogs). Maybe I'm missing something or my sample size is skewed.

The people I've seen doing this are also just exhausted, as they've said directly.

It comes down to... the rent is too damn high.

Young people without children willing to spend 1/3 to 1/2 of their total income servicing mortgages or rent drives the cost of living to ridiculous levels. People can't afford child care either by having family live close to high earners to help, or to hire child care. So it's unaffordable. There's nowhere to live for families in high density places (apartment buildings optimize for the highest rent tennants, 1,2 BR single people)

Lots of people want children but can't engineer a life for themselves to have them without moving somewhere really far out and boring or being in the top 5% of earners, or living in squalor despite high incomes.

Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees

#140

Post by colechristensen »

beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #48
reverendsteveii wrote: post #29

I feel like it's been a long time fretting over falling birth rates and this is the first time I've seen anyone float the idea that making life better for people might make them a bit more inclined to make more people.

It's not really a problem you can pick around at the edges. You have to take some big swings to try to resolve it. Politicians, businesses, and the entire voting public, need to take a hard look at the real things they can do that will have an actual effect. 4-day workweek is a big one.

Second item: housing needs to be a bad investment. Both for individuals and corporate.
Post reply on HN