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The weekend is 100 years old

theguardian.com

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Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#91

Post by ciupicri »

bobthepanda wrote: post #28
throw0101a wrote: post #4

Also, the week itself as a 'hard' delineator of time also appears to be fairly recent: > Henkin treats the seven-day week as a social and cultural institution, focusing primarily on the nineteenth-century United States. Unlike years, months, and days, which have astronomical foundations, the week is an entirely historical and social construct with no scientific basis. The study argues that the early American republic…

while the seven day week is arbitrary, it is also worth noting that the French Revolution had experimented with a metric ten day week, which ended up being a total bust because laborers only got one week in ten of rest rather than one in seven.

The Soviets had a 5 day week between the two world wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_calendar

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#92

Post by hamper653 »

We should have a 5-days week: A, B, C, D, E.

Weekend would be E and A.

12 months of 6 weeks each, except "February" with an extra week.

A would always the 1st, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, 26th or 31st (in "February").

B would always be the 2nd, 7th, etc.

Leap years would have a day F inserted between E and A at the end of "February" (of which it would be the 36th), keeping this new calendar consistent with the current one.

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#93

Post by camd32 »

deadbabe wrote: post #17

I wonder if someday we’ll have a “monthend”, where most of society takes a whole week off at the end of a month. I think I’d like this better than a 4 day work week. People could come back truly rested. With the shift to AI, it could happen.

I'd be inclined to agree with you if every vacation I've ever taken hasn't left me less excited to come back to work.

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#94

Post by ciupicri »

jmyeet wrote: post #60

Whenever I hear someone in a privileged job, such as a software engineer, complain about unions or collective bargaining or in fact any form of collectivism, I have to suppress my rage because every concession to the working class, such as weekends, safety standards, overtime pay, PTO, sick leave and so on was paid for in blood by your forebears. The biggest changes came shortly after Henry Ford conceded the weekend…

One of my high school teachers couldn't give a ... rat's ass about unions and strikes and teachers had it pretty bad back then; they still do today. Not everyone drinks the communist kool aid sold today by Bernie Sanders and AOC in America. Some of us have already experienced firsthand the "benefits" of communism. By the way, while the work week in the US was only 5 days long, in communist Romania it was still 6 days long. Pupils went to school Saturdays. Though during the last years of communism some weeks of the month were shorter, only 5 days.

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#95

Post by unselect5917 »

The 7 day week is completely artificial.

Days exist, defined by the rotation of the Earth.

Months exist, defined by the orbit of the moon.

Seasons exist, defined by the solstices and equinoxes.

Years exist, defined by the orbit of the Earth.

Pretty much everything else is an invention of man.

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#96

Post by vander_elst »

hamper653 wrote: post #92

We should have a 5-days week: A, B, C, D, E. Weekend would be E and A. 12 months of 6 weeks each, except "February" with an extra week. A would always the 1st, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, 26th or 31st (in "February"). B would always be the 2nd, 7th, etc. Leap years would have a day F inserted between E and A at the end of "February" (of which it would be the 36th), keeping this new calendar consistent with the current one…

Very curious to understand the thinking behind this, why should the weekend be E and A? My first approach would be to have the weekend on D and E which would seem to be the end of the week.

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#98

Post by [deleted] »

Gecko4072 wrote: post #40

For the elders here, what are the actual ways to not live under the rule of an industrial clock? I’m not talking about starting your own company get rich quick scheme or moving into the woods (unless..), but really, I don’t see many ways about it. You could move somewhere rural, lower expenses, but then you are socially isolated to an extent. So, move to where people are, oh but then the only way to support the lifes…

[deleted]

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#99

Post by ViktorRay »

weaksauce wrote: post #83
Almondsetat wrote: post #81

A surprising amount of apparently long standing traditions are actually anglo-adjacent inventions from the last 150 years

it wasn't much more than 50 years ago before being able to go to the ER to be saved in an emergency in the us was a right without having to show proof of payment/insurance. a lot of what we take for granted are very recent things.

Also the American Board of Medical Specialties didn’t officially approve Emergency Medicine as its own speciality until 1979. Emergency Medicine is a fairly new speciality. Many people are surprised by this but it’s true.

Re: The weekend is 100 years old

#100

Post by bentley »

hamper653 wrote: post #92

We should have a 5-days week: A, B, C, D, E. Weekend would be E and A. 12 months of 6 weeks each, except "February" with an extra week. A would always the 1st, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, 26th or 31st (in "February"). B would always be the 2nd, 7th, etc. Leap years would have a day F inserted between E and A at the end of "February" (of which it would be the 36th), keeping this new calendar consistent with the current one…

You’d have to convince a lot of religious people to give up the day of rest they’ve considered a religious obligation for thousands of years.
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