Why not half a salary?
Because two 20 hour employee are worth considerably less than one 40 hour employee for all but the most menial jobs.
[citation needed]
Why Not a Three-Day Week?
51–60 of 110 posts
Re: Why Not a Three-Day Week?
#52Yes, let's work 3 days a week in the West. China will continue to work 6 or 7 days. Fast forward 10 years and the reserve currency will be the yuan.
I don't know why you're being downvoted, I think this is a valid point.
One of the reasons companies are unwilling to reduce working hours is because of their competitive nature and that others haven't. No one wants to fall behind. But if others did it, then it's much easier to follow suit.
Re: Why Not a Three-Day Week?
#53I find the whole economic system to be quite bizarre. Nobody's salary seems to correlate with much except their skill at getting a high salary. For instance, my sister (elementary education) makes even less than I do as a grad student. The difference is that she wakes up at 5:00 AM and works all day teaching and taking care of little kids until 7:00 PM, whereas I wake up whenever I feel like it, head to a coffee shop…
I wouldn't say no one is pursuing it. I think it just has yet to become considered as a real possibility for many.
I believe there may be a certain point in the development of society where there has to be a shift from the economic/capitalist model into a model based on human betterment or an effort directly focused on increased capability to sustain and improve our quality of living.
Capitalism worked to get us where we are, but I don't believe it will get us to where we want to be. It improved quality of life and was necessary to develop our current resources. Now we may be able to use those resources to directly model our lives and improve upon their quality.
Re: Why Not a Three-Day Week?
#54Re: Why Not a Three-Day Week?
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=semdh-j8V6w
I think that working in IT allows you to earn enough money to sustain a four-day week, even having a family.
IT is insane in a way. Management (who are not technical) make 4-10 times more than technical staff.
Re: Why Not a Three-Day Week?
#56Re: Why Not a Three-Day Week?
#57Why not? Because capitalism. New technology will continue to automate away more and more jobs, from manufacturing to the service industry. This could be one of the greatest achievements in human history, leading to that so-called "leisure society" futurists talked about, but that would require a massive overhaul of most countries' economic systems. All those gains in productivity mostly enrich the owner class while t…
I perceive this as one of a species of comments that is well-intentioned and valuable in isolation, but that when introduced to the thread has the effect of making it harder to discuss the article on its own terms. It's easy to see the subtext of the article that indicts unrestrained economic competition. So it's hard to ding a comment for surfacing that subtext and engaging with it. But at the same time, having been…
I agree. Comments like this are stronger when they stay with the specific content of the article. They're weaker when treating it merely as a platform for some generic position ("obsession with the free market").
It isn't that the rhetoric is false, it's that it's impossible for it to be substantive here. Grand claims need grand substance, which there isn't room for in a mere comment post. People compensate for this with ersatz things like getting louder or angrier.
Tangents don't have to be bad. Ira Glass-style "I had an uncle who wore that kind of hat" tangents can be great. But generic tangents go somewhere uninteresting. The gravitational pull of the large, familiar topics has to be resisted because once the discussion gets stuck on one of those planets it is never getting off.
Re: Why Not a Three-Day Week?
#58I find the whole economic system to be quite bizarre. Nobody's salary seems to correlate with much except their skill at getting a high salary. For instance, my sister (elementary education) makes even less than I do as a grad student. The difference is that she wakes up at 5:00 AM and works all day teaching and taking care of little kids until 7:00 PM, whereas I wake up whenever I feel like it, head to a coffee shop…
I wouldn't say no one is pursuing it. I think it just has yet to become considered as a real possibility for many. I believe there may be a certain point in the development of society where there has to be a shift from the economic/capitalist model into a model based on human betterment or an effort directly focused on increased capability to sustain and improve our quality of living. Capitalism worked to get us wher…
But without a personal incentive, nobody will want to do the stuff that isn't fun, or is very risky. How about that?
Re: Why Not a Three-Day Week?
#59I would love some kind of job board for "lifestyle jobs". Thats jobs with 2 or 3 day work weeks and a 9-5 schedule. I might go as low as $60k (+ benefits) if it was offered. The closest thing to achieve that now is freelancing.
Check out Escape the City. "We connect people with exciting non-corporate opportunities"
Re: Why Not a Three-Day Week?
#60I find the whole economic system to be quite bizarre. Nobody's salary seems to correlate with much except their skill at getting a high salary. For instance, my sister (elementary education) makes even less than I do as a grad student. The difference is that she wakes up at 5:00 AM and works all day teaching and taking care of little kids until 7:00 PM, whereas I wake up whenever I feel like it, head to a coffee shop…
I think there are two separate issues in your comment... You make more than your sister doing "less" work because knowledge and high level skills are a value multiplier. You may come up with a world changing idea that generates billions of dollars. No kindergarden teacher could achieve that. Pay matches accordingly. Your second point is that there seems to be a lot of people with useless jobs and I couldn't agree mor…
To play devil's advocate, what if the impact of a teacher inspired a student who eventually came up with a billon-dollar idea?