if we worked the same shorter hours as Germany, we'd eliminate joblessness overnight

[PETRUS]

"The most important point to realize is that the problem facing wealthy countries at the moment is not that we are poor, as the stern proponents of austerity insist. The problem is that we are wealthy. We have tens of millions of people unemployed precisely because we can meet current demand without needing their labor."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/03/why-americans-should-work-less-way-germans-do

More at the link...

[NYC_SKP]

1. We'd have less stress, a better quality of life, as well. nt

[SoutherDem]

2. Also the wealth corporations are banking

would indeed trickle down.

[Smilo]

3. And production would increase..........

because people would be happier, healthier, less stressed and less tired.

[Igel]

4. Don't forget the flying pigs.

People forget that there are opportunity costs and limited budgets.

I'd love to have 30 more people where I work. We'd be happier, less stress. Great!

But, uh, they cut positions last year and don't have an exta $1.65 million sitting around. To hire 30 people they'd need $1.65 million.

I guess they could get it by reducing wages. Or perhaps not doing any maintenance. Or buying supplies. We could work in the dark, without air conditioning or heat and using chamber pots because we had no water.

Sounds good, but that's the wonders of being an advocate. Being an advocate has no downside, because ultimately advocates bears no responsibility for the most absurd proposals even as they preen their moral virtues. If the advocated-for solution is implemented, the advocate claims all the moral virtue and lets somebody else bear the responsibility for working out all the details and being responsible for all the downsides. Those people would be the fiduciaries. The advocate expects fiduciaries to be perfect and infallible. It's far easier being an advocate than being a fiduciary.

[rhett o rick]

5. I think they mean that instead of working 60 - 80 hour weeks, if employees

worked 30 - 35 hour weeks, there would be more jobs to spread around. But people would have less total income and would have to do with less materialism.

[PETRUS]

6. The flying pigs have been accounted for

The author of this piece has, in fact, made specific proposals. There's a reason he uses Germany as a point of comparison. Germany makes use of one of the the policy solutions he has suggested - i.e., using money that would otherwise be paid out as unemployment benefits to subsidize a reduction in hours.

An essential and related story is that due to policy differences most other rich countries have distributed a larger share of their productivity gains broadly in the form of leisure time, whereas the US has distributed a larger share to the 1% in the form of (monetary) wealth.

[RainDog]

7. k&r n/t

we need to move beyond the "division of labor" view of work that had a man at work and a woman at home. that's not reality. our children need parents and parents need jobs - and time to spend with their families.