Karl Marx would be proud: Bernie Sanders urged us to take another step toward the philosopher’s utopia by proposing: Mandatory 4-day work week.
In a communist society, workers would be freed to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, without becoming hunters, fishermen, shepherds, or shepherds, as I have in mind. Marx wrote that he would be able to “herd the cow in the evening and criticize after dinner.” critic. ”
Needless to say, communism did not become like that.
But the belief that work is fundamentally a capitalist imposition, unnatural and bad for humans remains influential on the left, and Mr. It is proposed to move from a 40-hour work week to a 32-hour work week. rich and smart.
“The time has come to reduce our nation’s stress levels and ensure Americans enjoy a better quality of life,” the Vermont socialist argues.
“The time has come for people to work 32 hours a week without reducing their pay.”
The last clause is important. If everyone could work fewer hours and still get the exact same output and income, why wouldn’t they?
If that’s possible, why go to four days a week?
It is clearly cruel to force someone to work for four days when they can get the same result after three days of work.
Of course, the promise of working fewer hours but still working the same way is the equivalent of socialism. Mexico will pay for the border wall.
In addition to free lunch, guests are promised complimentary breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and room service provides snacks until late at night. free.
The amount of money we earn is not an arbitrary number, but is related to what we produce. To simplify things, if everyone works 20% less without increasing productivity, GDP will fall by 20%.
The pie will shrink, even though Mr. Sanders says everyone’s share will — improbably — be just as big.
It’s certainly true that Americans work harder than people in other countries.
France boasts a 35-hour work week, but that restriction only applies to blue-collar workers.
Still, French workers have shorter working hours than we do, showing that basic economic laws are not so easily suspended. Reduce money: According to The Week, the average net disposable income of a French household is $34,375 a year, compared to $51,147 in the United States.
If Mr. Sanders were honest and not a socialist, he would say that Americans have a huge benefit: Americans could work less and become poorer.
There probably won’t be many applicants.
Sanders complains that even though American workers are 400% more productive than they were in the 1940s, they still work long hours.
But over time, our work became less. In 1830, his average working week was over 70 hours. During his next century, it was reduced by almost half.
If we were satisfied with the standard of living we had in the 1940s, we could take the plunge and introduce a two-day work week.
But from a 21st century perspective, returning to the housing, plumbing, technology, transportation, and health care of the 1940s would and will feel like poverty.
What Mr. Sanders misses, as economist David Bahnsen argues in his new book, Full Time: Work and the Meaning of Life, is that work is good for us and, in fact, good for the human condition. This means that it is inherently present in
Moreover, the problem isn’t that Americans work too much; it’s that too many Americans don’t work at all.
Bahnsen noted that labor force participation rates have been declining over time, noting that if participation rates remained the same as they were in 2000, 10 million more Americans would be working, and along with that, there would be fewer goods and services. It has been pointed out that this will also increase.
In other words, Sanders’ ideas are a blunt expression of economic ignorance.
It would be better for everyone if senators found more time for leisure and resolved to spend less time at work, rather than work harder to propose and promote such a ridiculous idea. .
Twitter: @RichLowry
