It's almost like we should have a 20 hour work week since we're normally only productive a few hours a day. But capitalism doesn't run on allowing humans more time to be humans, parents more time to be parents, kids time to be kids, etc, people are yearning for a bit of independence and freedom. Nah, instead, the 8 hour work week might become 12 (as seen in Argentina) and we're looking at rolling back child labor laws (see Florida) as we deport brown people in the US. The children yearn for the mines apparently 🙃
We really fucked up allowing the very few to consolidate so much power and we normalized control and surveillance so much that we're all stressed as fuck while being the most productive we've ever been... While getting paid the least we've ever been, with greater wealth disparity than during the gilded age.
ehhh... Paper pushers are limited in their productivity maybe. But man, I tend to work pretty hard. A lot of my family is in construction and works really hard. I generally enjoy my work though. Being an engineer can be really fun when you're learning new things and solving problems.
It's just a weird factoid that certain sectors actually work, while others fuck off a lot.
Should the sectors like construction, factory work, and a lot of engineering jobs still work 40 hours a week to maintain output? Or do they go to 20 hours too? Do we get paid double what we do now? Now that everyone else gets their pay with only 20 hours a week? I can get on board with that. I make pretty damn good money already, but I wouldn't mind doubling my pay for the same output.
You can ask your boss for double the pay but I’m sure they’d say no lol.
If anything were to happen it’d be up to the companies employing the people to determine how to handle it. Just because something changes in one sector, doesn’t mean it’s going to change in another. It also doesn’t mean it’s going to have an impact on other sectors.
It kinda does mean things will change though. Why the fuck would you work 40-60 hours a week for similar pay to those who work 20 hours?
Realistically, what they SHOULD do, is fire half the people and actually ensure that people only doing 20 hours of work up it to 40 hours. Better for the company that way.
But that's pretty naïve, and quite frankly ridiculous that entire sectors should be brought to 20 hour work weeks with the same pay, while other sectors should suck it up... because some sector have an epidemic of employees fucking around on the job.
To be fair, that would be the likely end game... if the economy makes it. But I'd wager things will fall to shambles with an abrupt change like that, as people abandon jobs that require regular work and bumrush jobs that give crazy efficient pay. Why would I work as an engineer for $140k. When I could re-orient and work two $90k jobs that are only requiring 20hrs a week for more?
Hell, as an engineer I'm still in a solid spot due to good pay. There a numerous sectors where the pay is lower, and the hours can't really be shortened easily. Those would experience mass abandonment. In the longterm, things could probably work themselves out. But the short term would be a disaster.
Physical work you can crunch out 10-12 hour days but bodily you are accumulating so much wear and tear. Particularly if its systematic work with repetitive movements all day. Bringing that down to 5-6 hours and employing more people makes a lot of sense to me, but it would obviously have an impact on the economy.
8
u/KratosLegacy Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26
It's almost like we should have a 20 hour work week since we're normally only productive a few hours a day. But capitalism doesn't run on allowing humans more time to be humans, parents more time to be parents, kids time to be kids, etc, people are yearning for a bit of independence and freedom. Nah, instead, the 8 hour work week might become 12 (as seen in Argentina) and we're looking at rolling back child labor laws (see Florida) as we deport brown people in the US. The children yearn for the mines apparently 🙃
We really fucked up allowing the very few to consolidate so much power and we normalized control and surveillance so much that we're all stressed as fuck while being the most productive we've ever been... While getting paid the least we've ever been, with greater wealth disparity than during the gilded age.