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US workers debate long working hours ... Thanx to Al Jazeera English
This posting will be Part 8 of the "American Jobs" series of this journal/ blog ... and the video above is a reality worth more atencion. The posting is about an old idea, and giving it new thought, as far as working lesser hours, or a 4- day work week ... and having more leisure time for folks, which can have some healthy benefits for not just those in the workforce, but even for business. What inspired the posting in part, as well as part of the posting title, was an article I was reading by Chris Weller in Business Insider ... I also wanted to add some read linked below from G.E. Miller's piece in 20SomethingFinance. This also applies to so many so called free market countries of today more than ever, because of the work culture and mindset that has been largely influenced by America to spread and expand globally even more, with this new push of neoliberalism ... and the rest of our work, buy, consume and die, stress filled hot rush lifestyles and thinking. After the pieces from Weller and Miller, I will add some views of my own below.
Chris Weller G.E. Miller
***** BUSINESS INSIDER/ CHRIS WELLER: Why we should have a 4- day work week ... (newsread)
***** 20SOMETHINGFINANCE/ G.E.MILLER: The U.S. is the Most Overworked Nation in the World ... (newsread)
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***** PD/ RCJ: "AMERICAN JOBS" PART'S 7 THRU 1
***** PD/ RCJ: "NO VACATION NATION?" **** a related posting
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Thomas Hudson Pickering/ Ranch Chimp
This is another posting and food for thought, that is considered by many today as radical thinking, impractical, it cant work, etc, in our prepaid programming and race to keep up with the Joneses ... thinking and questioning like this, is a sort of ultimate American sin in our pop- culture programming. Work and leisure are way out of balance, and you cant maintain stability and real progress for long without balance in anything. Between the high pressured commercialization of obtaining wealth, buying and working more, more and more, to corporate controlled political mouthpieces feeding us lies and doom/ gloom stories, pressure and competition, to unregulated neoliberal capitalism on steroids ... it is healthy mentally and physically to slow down a minute, and not drive ourselves crazy over the talk from a bunch of worthless parasites and overpaid hustlers peddling this nonsense to us. I mean, if any of the recent figures just over the last years since the 08 recession tells us anything about most of the new wealth in this new stage going to the top of the chain, and were working harder and more for lesser pay than ever, with not much trickling down, something isnt working right, eh? ... even the design in balanced capitalism shouldnt work and have results like that, nor should it create more poverty. It's remarkable how many even believe that poverty is part of healthy capitalism, and necessary for capitalism to survive, and that just driving wages into the dirt is healthy as well for capitalism ... I mean, the only folks telling us this, are either those at the top that control and rathole most wealth, or those at the bottom who are so culturally and politically uninformed or brainwashed to believe and spread such nonsense. The positive we have going, is that so many people are analyzing and researching what we have created as far as work/ employment and business, and coming up with alternative ideas ... along with so much inde and social media to get people to think and communicate for a moment out of the boxes they been assigned to. This is also why I think things like universal basic income are inportante to consider, and YES ... I think it can be beneficial not just for society, but even for business.
If you look around in your communities you see the stress factor more than ever, the job pinching, austerity, bankruptcies, credit problems, etc ... and it just been getting deeper and deeper, regardless of the bullshit you are fed about how great things are or will be on the path we currently are on. Some companies are starting to realize that happier employees lead to better productivity as well ... and that driving workers to stress and burn- out has a negative effect too. Back in the 1980's I done some contract work for a small company that had a 3- day work week, 3- 12 hour dayz ... the employees loved it, the owner loved it also, because they didnt have to pay out any overtime ... I was offered a job there, but declined, because I was already a foreman full time at a place I was with for 4 years, and had good benefits and profit sharing ... but I told them I'll work contract when they need help, just call me. The only thing better now through all of this, is that you have more gadgets and things to buy, most of which are obsolete in no time, and of not much actual value ... and much that will just fill landfills/ garbage dumps ... anything of real value that doesnt depreciate much, such as land/ real estate, metals, minerals, etc ... those at the top hoard. And today they are even buying out our governments, public amenities and ratholing our taxes ... so the idea that embracing this economics idea we have now, and working till we are blue in the face and dropping dead to get ahead, isnt going to do 99% of the populations a damn bit of good, besides buying and paying out more than they need. We are in a new era, the economics of past are not going to survive forever, eventually the jobs are not going to be there no matter how much you bust ass and compete for them. So, we are going to have to re- evaluate everything we been doing, because if we dont have enough time for leisure now ... in the future we will have to adjust and take time off, because there will be no need for jobs like today. Lesser work weeks are a healthy start to prepare as well for that future, so that people change that mindset and routine gradually of having to work till you drop, and having to keep up with the Joneses, with the new global alliance whether corporate or public, of how we work, trade, produce and do business.
Word Out ...
Otep- "Smash The Control Machine" (OFFICIAL VIDEO) ... Thanx to Dr. Otep Shamaya, Esquire **** a closing video here I wanted to add with the perfect lyrics for this posting and the current neoliberal pop- culture as well ... from the bold, brilliant and beautiful Otep Shamaya ... this will also be added to the "RCJ Music/ Arts Honour Roll Society".
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***** RANCH CHIMP JOURNAL "WELCOME" POST
***** RCJ MUSIC/ ART'S HONOUR ROLL SOCIETY (my hand- selected music/ arts picks)
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