A 6-hour workday would be 30 hours/week. If we're going to reduce the working week, then instead of spreading that over 5 days, why not work a 4-day week (7.5 hours/day)? That would reduce commuting congestion by 20%, and make everyone who doesn't like spending an hour a day in a traffic jam happy.
Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday
81–90 of 272 posts
Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday
#82> "though the United States is an outlier here, working both long and hard" The article conflates productivity with 'working hard'. Productivity is a measure of how much value is produced ('money is made') per hour of work. A bulldozer operator working an 8 hour day to move a few tons of dirt is more productive than a worker who needs many 12 hour work days to move the same amount of dirt with a shovel and wheelbarro…
I fear you're also conflating two things: money made and actual value produced.
Suppose the trader is selling credit default swaps and helping cause a big financial crash, or the bulldozer operator is destroying acres of forest to clear the way for a tobacco plantation. What they do may be very valuable to the people paying them (and hence, if they're lucky, lucrative for them personally) but have substantially negative net value by any reasonable measure.
So "amount of hard work" is at two removes from what (I think) really matters, namely amount of actual value produced.
Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday
#83The innovative US economy will make it all irrelevant anyway by introducing more and more work from home jobs. Work from home is almost common in the US and basically non-existent in Europe. I wouldn't trade Swedish 6-hour workday with my American-based 8-hour while working from my coach at home. Somehow socialists are always one step behind Mother Nature, i.e. free markets.
The innovative Scandinavian economy has resulted in the highest general happiness for its citizens. Maybe you should consider why you actually work - is it because work is the best thing that every happened to you, or something you do so you can afford to take the rest of your time off and hangout with friends and/or family?
So why in Norway they vote extreme right? Here is your dirty secret about Breiviks and Scandinavia: we can pay high taxes as long as it goes to us. But the very second it goes to Muslims, immigrants, etc. we are not socialist anymore. We are more like national socialists ;-) You see scnadinavian socialism seems to work only in national states. Once you have high immigration and you pay for immigrants, nobody wants it anymore. Now get this: in the US 70% of population are immigrants, or their children, or their grand-children. Obviously, you can see why Norwegians don't want to pay high taxes to benefit of immigrants. Why it is so difficult to comprehend that in the US it wouldn't work too?
Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday
#84I moved from the US (high on the list) to the Netherlands (bottom of the list) a while ago. Different jobs and sectors vary, but the theme I can confirm is that the Dutch feel more productive, generally (I work in software development). In very broad terms, the Dutch are more likely to plan and stick to those plans. Personal time and time off are valued, so you need to be efficient in your working hours. You can't re…
I've had the same experience in Norway. Maybe it is a Northern European thing?
Edited: Scandinavian -> Norther Europe
Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday
#85The innovative US economy will make it all irrelevant anyway by introducing more and more work from home jobs. Work from home is almost common in the US and basically non-existent in Europe. I wouldn't trade Swedish 6-hour workday with my American-based 8-hour while working from my coach at home. Somehow socialists are always one step behind Mother Nature, i.e. free markets.
Maybe it simply is not possible for us swedes to work from home like that because of our smaller houses? I certainly wouldn't know where to put the chemistry lab or the industrial robots. I barely have room for the mine-shaft.
I thought you must have bigger houses? no? I mean how can you claim to have better standard of living and live happier life in a small house without any space?
Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday
#86I'm Dutch and I work 4 days a week. My productivity in my startup is the same. This is what researchers say about our average number of hours per week: For example, Dutch workers are on par with American workers in terms of productivity per hour. They pay higher taxes and earn less than Americans. But on average, they work roughly 11 weeks less than their American counterparts each year, have access to government-fun…
The Dutch are also the most indebted people on earth:
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/factbook-2013-en/images/g...
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405297020375260...
http://www.economist.com/blogs/charlemagne/2013/11/netherlan...
Which means that as a country the people will have to either fall into bankruptcy, dramatically cut their quality of living, or work a lot more. All that leisure time came at a very high cost.
Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday
#87> "though the United States is an outlier here, working both long and hard" The article conflates productivity with 'working hard'. Productivity is a measure of how much value is produced ('money is made') per hour of work. A bulldozer operator working an 8 hour day to move a few tons of dirt is more productive than a worker who needs many 12 hour work days to move the same amount of dirt with a shovel and wheelbarro…
They probably chose a poor word ("hard") for high productivity, but apart from that the point is sound: The US works a long longer hours with fewer holidays than many European countries. And there's good reason to believe that the results/hour coefficient is lower for each individual worker regardless, when the "hour" part of the equation is higher.
I had a boss once who had done the same role in SV and in a subsidiary of BT (which still has a lot of civil service type rules extra privilege holidays)
His comment when asked was he got as much work out of the teams in the usa who had 2 weeks annual leave as he did in the uk with the team having 5 weeks holiday.
Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday
#88I'm Dutch and I work 4 days a week. My productivity in my startup is the same. This is what researchers say about our average number of hours per week: For example, Dutch workers are on par with American workers in terms of productivity per hour. They pay higher taxes and earn less than Americans. But on average, they work roughly 11 weeks less than their American counterparts each year, have access to government-fun…
I'm a little confused by this statement: > For example, Dutch workers are on par with American workers in terms of productivity per hour . If it's productivity per hour, doesn't that mean that the total productivity of Americans per week (or year) would be higher? Because as you're saying it, then Americans work 40h a week, and you work 30h a week, yet Americans are able to maintain the same level of productivity per…
American worked is cheaper too. And the energy is much cheaper than in EU. Ergo, not really competitive.
Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday
#89> "though the United States is an outlier here, working both long and hard" The article conflates productivity with 'working hard'. Productivity is a measure of how much value is produced ('money is made') per hour of work. A bulldozer operator working an 8 hour day to move a few tons of dirt is more productive than a worker who needs many 12 hour work days to move the same amount of dirt with a shovel and wheelbarro…
I fear you're also conflating two things: money made and actual value produced. Suppose the trader is selling credit default swaps and helping cause a big financial crash, or the bulldozer operator is destroying acres of forest to clear the way for a tobacco plantation. What they do may be very valuable to the people paying them (and hence, if they're lucky, lucrative for them personally) but have substantially negat…
+100
Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday
#90A possible issue with the experiment—the Hawthorne effect [1].