I don't know what planet some of you people live in.
Apply this reasoning to the people in trades that produce services that people need. The Mechanics, Construction workers, Electricians, plumbers, tow truck drivers the list goes on. Apply this idiotic rule to these workers and get ready to take your car in for a brake job and get it back next week or have your A/C in your house fixed next month. Hire more employees you may say but since we have eliminated teaching the trades in school and the interest in manual labor is at an all time low the pickings are slim.
Our jobs cannot be shipped overseas, we don't have time for "meal prep" or "walking the dog" etc.... we are ACTUALLY WORKING, fixing and building things
And the salaried people I work with know exactly what they do every day and they earn every penny and they would laugh at your "right sizing" of their jobs.
commiebernie was kicked out of a hippie commune for being lazy. He never held a real job for any length of time and was a complete failure until he entered politics at age forty. Now he is a millionaire. politics has been very very good to commiebernie.
My experience with going from full time to part time (because I had a child) was do the same amount of work in less time for less pay. My guess is that will make some people unhappy.
Biden has caused 20% inflation over the last three years. Most wages have not kept pace with that inflation. Negotiating a 20% cut in hours for the same pay makes complete sense. I'm surprised more people aren't doing this on their own. Most jobs are makework BS, and productivity would stay the same with less hours. In professional jobs, sometimes you get full benefits at 32 hours - so you're making more per hour by working less hours even at the same pay. But people have mortgages and stupid debts to pay, so they can't stand up for themselves and get pushed around, and complain to commies. Get out of debt and you can negotiate what makes total sense, and not have to rely on a communist to do it for you.
Well as much as I agree with you on much of what you have written here, my big question: who is to say that the people working "forty hour weeks" are really putting in 40 hours worth of work. Every single person I have spoken to about their salaried job is usually at a loss to explain what they do with even 28 of those hours. They have time, in their work day, to meal prep, clean, walk the dog, shop online, and catch up on Traitors...which says to me that their 40 hour week is "right sized" to 32 hours, rather than being an increase in pay. It's the difference between being paid while the green light is on (in teams) versus being paid while you're ACTUALLY working.
Facts! What a novel concept! Unfortunately we are allowing our brains to disregard logical (and experienced) basic events/economics. We just want to be entertained (bread and circuses)!
We would do better to make all overtime tax free. That should include business owners, salaried workers, and substack writers. Any work in excess of 40 hrs per week would be income tax exempt. This would increase overtime income opportunities for hourly wage earners as dropping the taxes from 1.5x overtime pay would cost the business about the same per hour. Salaried workers and business owners who put in 80 hrs a week would see a 50% drop in their income tax burden and businesses would not have to pay their half of FICA on those extra earnings. This would free up more money for businesses to hire entry level workers, pay everyone else higher wages/paid vacation, or buy nicer equipment for the company break room.
This would incentivise hard working people to work more/earn more instead of the status quo which punishes people for earning more.
Individuals working multiple part time jobs that exceed 40 hrs would get the benefit but individual businesses who are hiring the part time workers would not. This would encourage more companies to hire full time employees vs part time.
People don't need more time in their week to watch tik-tok or keep up with the Kardashians. They need less money grubbing IRS employees reaching into their pockets every time they put in an extra couple of hours of productivity.
If Bernie Sanders is so concerned about poor wage earners, he should sell off his million dollar homes and redistribute his equity to those who are unable to hire family members to grift off of campaign donations via percentages on multi-million dollar add buys.
I already wait WEEKS for my car to be repaired, or to have plumbing or electrical work done at my home. This has been blamed on supply chain issues for far too long now. Pandemic-related supply chain issues have been caught up with, yet they are still being blamed for much of the American slow-down across several sectors of the economy. The reality: many businesses don't want to hire more people even though they desperately need them, having the ability to continue putting up signs saying "understaffed, please bear with us" is just BS. Corporate greed even eats into their own interest when they realize they don't have to hire...they can just hike up prices. Yet still I see SO MANY people standing around not working when there exists a backlog in their office or their company...resulting in, you guessed it: far less than 32 hours worth of work being done anyway.
You can not consume what is not produced and no amount of accounting can change that.
The fundamental problem socialists have is that they visualize the economy in terms of money instead of in terms of production and consumption.
If we work 20% fewer hours there will be about 20% less "stuff" for us to consume. Even if we imagine a world in which your paycheck stays the same, what are you going to buy with it? You go to a starbucks to get a coffee, but the lines are super long... why??? Because they only have 20% of the servers. You go to buy a car but you can't get one... why? Because 20% fewer cars were built.
And then.... obviously... the prices of all these things has to go up. The grocer says "these things are flying off the shelves like hotcakes!" That's because there are 20% less of them! So the limited inventory sells out very quickly. Prices inevitably rise.
(Or, sometimes, the moron socialists put in a price controls and we have permanent shortages. So then they put in rationing. Then they blame "hoarders".)
"Money" is fundamentally accounting. It is important, but it's not the real thing. It's how we keep track of the real thing. The real thing is production.
You can not consume what is not produced and no amount of accounting can change that.
I love that you wrote about this crazy idea, John. I was recently ranting and raving to my husband about it. Much along the same lines as your well expressed piece. I will be Substacking my own thoughts about the subject hopefully soon. But I agree it is a very bad idea, will ultimately not help out the average worker and inflation will go off the charts. Folks look at "big" companies and all they see is "all that money" the company is making. They don't see all that money the company is paying out or even losing. I've seen both sides as a 9-5 office worker and then as a small business owner. I better start writing! Enjoyed your thoughts very much. Thank you.
American manufacturing's return to American soil would require anyone who took a job in those positions to take a cut in their standard of living....and talk about causing prices to go up! That would be an immediate inflation for all the cheap plastic wrap we buy from China, as well as clothing, home goods, and many other "bread and butter" items.
I can tell you from my own family history that many people were working far more hours a week than this 40 you speak of, especially the poorest among us.
Sanders is a Jew, and like a significant majority of them across the West - 70-75% - yearns for the "good old days" of their Messiahs - Lenin and Stalin!
I don't know what planet some of you people live in.
Apply this reasoning to the people in trades that produce services that people need. The Mechanics, Construction workers, Electricians, plumbers, tow truck drivers the list goes on. Apply this idiotic rule to these workers and get ready to take your car in for a brake job and get it back next week or have your A/C in your house fixed next month. Hire more employees you may say but since we have eliminated teaching the trades in school and the interest in manual labor is at an all time low the pickings are slim.
Our jobs cannot be shipped overseas, we don't have time for "meal prep" or "walking the dog" etc.... we are ACTUALLY WORKING, fixing and building things
And the salaried people I work with know exactly what they do every day and they earn every penny and they would laugh at your "right sizing" of their jobs.
Shawn you need to get out more
commiebernie was kicked out of a hippie commune for being lazy. He never held a real job for any length of time and was a complete failure until he entered politics at age forty. Now he is a millionaire. politics has been very very good to commiebernie.
My experience with going from full time to part time (because I had a child) was do the same amount of work in less time for less pay. My guess is that will make some people unhappy.
Biden has caused 20% inflation over the last three years. Most wages have not kept pace with that inflation. Negotiating a 20% cut in hours for the same pay makes complete sense. I'm surprised more people aren't doing this on their own. Most jobs are makework BS, and productivity would stay the same with less hours. In professional jobs, sometimes you get full benefits at 32 hours - so you're making more per hour by working less hours even at the same pay. But people have mortgages and stupid debts to pay, so they can't stand up for themselves and get pushed around, and complain to commies. Get out of debt and you can negotiate what makes total sense, and not have to rely on a communist to do it for you.
Well as much as I agree with you on much of what you have written here, my big question: who is to say that the people working "forty hour weeks" are really putting in 40 hours worth of work. Every single person I have spoken to about their salaried job is usually at a loss to explain what they do with even 28 of those hours. They have time, in their work day, to meal prep, clean, walk the dog, shop online, and catch up on Traitors...which says to me that their 40 hour week is "right sized" to 32 hours, rather than being an increase in pay. It's the difference between being paid while the green light is on (in teams) versus being paid while you're ACTUALLY working.
The problem is the MANDATORY part. Leftist "populists" always run back to the government to enforce their terrible policies.
Facts! What a novel concept! Unfortunately we are allowing our brains to disregard logical (and experienced) basic events/economics. We just want to be entertained (bread and circuses)!
We would do better to make all overtime tax free. That should include business owners, salaried workers, and substack writers. Any work in excess of 40 hrs per week would be income tax exempt. This would increase overtime income opportunities for hourly wage earners as dropping the taxes from 1.5x overtime pay would cost the business about the same per hour. Salaried workers and business owners who put in 80 hrs a week would see a 50% drop in their income tax burden and businesses would not have to pay their half of FICA on those extra earnings. This would free up more money for businesses to hire entry level workers, pay everyone else higher wages/paid vacation, or buy nicer equipment for the company break room.
This would incentivise hard working people to work more/earn more instead of the status quo which punishes people for earning more.
Individuals working multiple part time jobs that exceed 40 hrs would get the benefit but individual businesses who are hiring the part time workers would not. This would encourage more companies to hire full time employees vs part time.
People don't need more time in their week to watch tik-tok or keep up with the Kardashians. They need less money grubbing IRS employees reaching into their pockets every time they put in an extra couple of hours of productivity.
If Bernie Sanders is so concerned about poor wage earners, he should sell off his million dollar homes and redistribute his equity to those who are unable to hire family members to grift off of campaign donations via percentages on multi-million dollar add buys.
I already wait WEEKS for my car to be repaired, or to have plumbing or electrical work done at my home. This has been blamed on supply chain issues for far too long now. Pandemic-related supply chain issues have been caught up with, yet they are still being blamed for much of the American slow-down across several sectors of the economy. The reality: many businesses don't want to hire more people even though they desperately need them, having the ability to continue putting up signs saying "understaffed, please bear with us" is just BS. Corporate greed even eats into their own interest when they realize they don't have to hire...they can just hike up prices. Yet still I see SO MANY people standing around not working when there exists a backlog in their office or their company...resulting in, you guessed it: far less than 32 hours worth of work being done anyway.
You can not consume what is not produced and no amount of accounting can change that.
The fundamental problem socialists have is that they visualize the economy in terms of money instead of in terms of production and consumption.
If we work 20% fewer hours there will be about 20% less "stuff" for us to consume. Even if we imagine a world in which your paycheck stays the same, what are you going to buy with it? You go to a starbucks to get a coffee, but the lines are super long... why??? Because they only have 20% of the servers. You go to buy a car but you can't get one... why? Because 20% fewer cars were built.
And then.... obviously... the prices of all these things has to go up. The grocer says "these things are flying off the shelves like hotcakes!" That's because there are 20% less of them! So the limited inventory sells out very quickly. Prices inevitably rise.
(Or, sometimes, the moron socialists put in a price controls and we have permanent shortages. So then they put in rationing. Then they blame "hoarders".)
"Money" is fundamentally accounting. It is important, but it's not the real thing. It's how we keep track of the real thing. The real thing is production.
You can not consume what is not produced and no amount of accounting can change that.
I love that you wrote about this crazy idea, John. I was recently ranting and raving to my husband about it. Much along the same lines as your well expressed piece. I will be Substacking my own thoughts about the subject hopefully soon. But I agree it is a very bad idea, will ultimately not help out the average worker and inflation will go off the charts. Folks look at "big" companies and all they see is "all that money" the company is making. They don't see all that money the company is paying out or even losing. I've seen both sides as a 9-5 office worker and then as a small business owner. I better start writing! Enjoyed your thoughts very much. Thank you.
American manufacturing's return to American soil would require anyone who took a job in those positions to take a cut in their standard of living....and talk about causing prices to go up! That would be an immediate inflation for all the cheap plastic wrap we buy from China, as well as clothing, home goods, and many other "bread and butter" items.
"Most jobs".
I can tell you from my own family history that many people were working far more hours a week than this 40 you speak of, especially the poorest among us.
Sanders is a Jew, and like a significant majority of them across the West - 70-75% - yearns for the "good old days" of their Messiahs - Lenin and Stalin!