Current Events > How come we still have 40 hour weeks?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Societys levels of technological prowess and resulting degrees of automation eclipse the pasts. If so much is automated why do we still work 40 hour weeks?

Because our capitalist ruling class knows that we might rebel if we had the time and energy to protest the abuses they subject us to. It's also why we have stuck weak employment protections even in the states with the least awful laws on the matter. It's also why they spent decades attacking and destroying unions, because a collective group employing bargaining power is much more fearsome than dealing with a couple isolated employees who might speak out.

Because this is one of the instances where it actually would be socialism to make the change and not the sort of bible-thumpy nonsense that conservatives screak about to their children as a horror story. Most of the civilized world has shown unequivocally that decreasing the work-week improves literally everything but as the US is explicitly conservative in nature we only have eyes on increasing the man-hours worked.

Cause you are asking why instead of planning how.

Capitalism and old ass tradition. We should be working 24 hours a week with less focus on business with more government assistance with cheaper housing since the US is the #1 country supposedly.

gunplagirl posted...

Because our capitalist ruling class knows that we might rebel if we had the time and energy to protest the abuses they subject us to. It's also why we have stuck weak employment protections even in the states with the least awful laws on the matter. It's also why they spent decades attacking and destroying unions, because a collective group employing bargaining power is much more fearsome than dealing with a couple isolated employees who might speak out.

/topic

I wish I had 40 hour work week
Try 60 to 72.

Because for as much as automatiin has advanced, theres sti.l a shit ton of processes that would be prohibitively expensive tonautomate. There are things ive done at my last 2 jobs i could imagine a robot doing, but is simply more sustainably done by human hands.

Because the goal of capitalism isn't to reduce the amount of work we have to do.

It's to squeeze as much out of workers as possible for the cheapest cost, while ensuring that the working class doesn't become self-sufficient enough to become financially independent.

It depends on the job you're working but many, especially most blue collar ones income, quotas and growth are tied to hours, and productivity.

Most that think sub 40hrs work usually are working some useless, overpaid white collar job, or something like a minimum wage retail, or restaurant job.

I honestly believe it's because capitalism is such a scam in America. In Europe a lot of workers work only 30 hours a week and get way more days off, they also have universal healthcare. And in America the wealth gap between the rich and poor is getting wider and wider with more people in the poverty threshold.

ellis123 posted...

Because this is one of the instances where it actually would be socialism to make the change and not the sort of bible-thumpy nonsense that conservatives screak about to their children as a horror story. Most of the civilized world has shown unequivocally that decreasing the work-week improves literally everything but as the US is explicitly conservative in nature we only have eyes on increasing the man-hours worked.

this is false. this topic is talking about capitalism with a shorter work week. socialism is a fundamentally different economic system.

If you are only working 40 hours a week you have it easy.

Why don't we just let the robots do all of the work and the only jobs are 10 hour work weeks performing maintenance on them and oh yeah we also get $10,000,000 minimum wage!!!

Damn, I wished I only worked 40 a week.

CobraGT posted...

Cause you are asking why instead of planning how.

This post will be ignored, but its the most important in the topic.

cuttin_in_farm posted...

This post will be ignored, but its the most important in the topic.

literally nothing we can do about it. government needs to protect its people, but it protects corpos first.

--Zero- posted...

Capitalism and old ass tradition. We should be working 24 hours a week with less focus on business with more government assistance with cheaper housing since the US is the #1 country supposedly.

#1 for business

"Wish I had a 40"

So don't pick up OT

How would retail/service/etc operate? Wouldn't they need to hire almost twice as many people?

Sexypwnstar posted...

"Wish I had a 40"

So don't pick up OT

Quite the privileged post tbh.

I believe if humanity were to eliminate the need to sleep companies would demand you take whatever treatment is necessary to remove the need to sleep if you want to keep your job then make you work 14 hour days.

Crimson_Corsair posted...

Quite the privileged post tbh.

OT is voluntary and won't be forever, hoping for a constant stream of OT is irresponsible.

Solid_Sonic posted...

I believe if humanity were to eliminate the need to sleep companies would demand you take whatever treatment is necessary to remove the need to sleep if you want to keep your job then make you work 14 hour days.

I think a lot about corporations in the Pokemon world making their employees take Worry Seeds

in europe 40 hours a week is considered slave labor

I think youre vastly overestimating the current capabilities of automation for the majority of existing jobs. The discussion of automating trucks has been seriously going on for at least a decade and were probably at least another decade or more away from a realistic rollout of automated semi trucks in a meaningful manner.

Solid_Snake07 posted...

I think youre vastly overestimating the current capabilities of automation for the majority of existing jobs.

This.

We're not in some futuristic sci-fi world yet, folks. Industrial revolution was just a little over 100 years ago. Give it another several hundred years before we have robots doing everything for us.

Solid_Snake07 posted...

I think youre vastly overestimating the current capabilities of automation for the majority of existing jobs. The discussion of automating trucks has been seriously going on for at least a decade and were probably at least another decade or more away from a realistic rollout of automated semi trucks in a meaningful manner.

while this is true, it's also slightly missing the point; at least the way I see it.

improvements in plowing technology did not improve the lives of the chattel slaves who pushed the plows. they just produced more for the owner.

if, for example, an improvement allows a worker to produce twice as much in the same amount of time, the humane thing to do would be cutting the work day in half without reducing pay. under capitalism, the solution is either to lay off half the workforce or to produce twice as much; both of which result in increased profit for the owner and no actual benefit to the people doing the work

WalkingLobsters posted...

Societys levels of technological prowess and resulting degrees of automation eclipse the pasts. If so much is automated why do we still work 40 hour weeks?

More output for same amount of time

Plus, not everythings automated

Sexypwnstar posted...

OT is voluntary and won't be forever, hoping for a constant stream of OT is irresponsible.

Ot is voluntary and forced where I work.

Capitalism and the way businesses are set up.
We constantly re-do work that has long been solved by other people (especially in software), and often times have cheap clones of items that no one really needs that's constantly made.

Many jobs also have no real value, such as telemarketers, MLMs, advertisers, those related to the stock market, etc. They don't really do anything other than helping to game the current system we're under, or get you to buy things you don't need.

We're also demanding more goods and services than ever before so there's that.