[Novus]

Obama is soon supposed to make a speech on the Dismal Jobs Depression and what he is going to do about it. Honestly decisive action is needed NOW and it wouldn't cost the Government a dime.

Shortening the Workweek to 35 hours would have immediate and drastic effect on the US jobs market.

This is a no brainer the math is simple.

Current US law sets the workweek at 40 hours and any hours worked after that must be paid at time and a half rate. So for example a small business with 10 employees that each work 40 hours would log 400 hours in paid hourly labor.

Under the new law the workweek would be set to 35 hours and any hours worked after that must be paid at time and half rate. So in the same example the same small business with 10 employees working 35 hours would only log 350 hours in paid hourly labor. In order to keep their operations up they would have to either pay for 50 hours of over time for the existing 10 employees or hire two new workers.

Either decision will create more jobs because you will either end up with 10 better paid employees which means more cash for the economy or two new workers which is means to its own end in terms of solving the jobs depression.


Macro-economically there are tens of millions of people working 40 hour work weeks in US. Nationally the shortening of the workweek would create millions of NEW jobs because the example of that small business would be multiplied millions of times over. The 35 hour work week would additionally put upward pressure on wages as businesses would seek to keep the people they have while other businesses are seeking to lure their employees away. Workers only put up with long hours and little pay because of fear. Fear that they won't have a job tomorrow if they ask for a raise or better working conditions. The economy is motivated by fear and greed but for too long the table has been tilted against the worker and the greedy corporations have been more than willing to take advantage. Changing the laws now would turn the table back in the workers favor leading to more and better paying jobs.


Corporations and Businesses can afford to pay better as they are sitting on $2 trillion in cash. Most of that cash only exists because of the stimulus which came in the form of zero interest loans and subsidies and bailouts. This economic policy that puts corporate interests ahead of the people's interests has not served America well. Time to make a more people centric economic policy and get the money back in the hands of where it belongs. The US worker; the men and women who built this country. The US worker doesn't want hand outs. They want Jobs.


This will bring in More JOBS for everyone and stop the race to the bottom. It is working people who keep the economy going and if they aren't working or aren't being paid for their work then they won't be able to buy anything. You can either have a virtuous cycle of higher wages that leads to more spending which in turn leads to more jobs and overall wealth creation or you can have vicious cycle of lower wages leading to less spending in the economy which leads to less jobs and wealth destruction. This is the crossroads we face.

If Obama wants to be a leader now is the time to be that leader and do what is right for America. Make the 35 hour workweek law now Obama.

[Unconventional Ideas]

Remind me again why we should still be holding out hope that Obama will be a leader in anything except advancing the interests of the elite.

[dsula]

I have a better idea. Make a 2 hour work week, it creates even more jobs.

35 hours is a typical non-sense proposel from people who never operated a business and in general have no idea. Loss of productivity is significant. You want to make it CHEAPER to hire people, not more expensive.

[prajeshbhat]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dsula', 'I') have a better idea. Make a 2 hour work week, it creates even more jobs.

35 hours is a typical non-sense proposel from people who never operated a business and in general have no idea. Loss of productivity is significant. You want to make it CHEAPER to hire people, not more expensive.

[peeker01]

Just one more reason to move your business to China.

[Novus]

When one can only use the straw man is means you have no argument or no refuting the logic. It is like the person who says raise the minimum wage to $1 million every time the workers dare to ask for 50 cents. It is mindless rytoric and nothing more.


Those with no solutions can spout nonsense all they want but the Math doesn't lie.

30 million 40 hour jobs becomes 34.28 million 35 hour jobs. That is a gain 4,280,000 jobs just by changing this one law.


The MATH doesn't lie.

[babystrangeloop]

What a fantasy! So many people who really produce things at white collar jobs and only have employment agreements to work 40 hours a week work much, much longer than that in order to fulfill deliverables.

[peeker01]

Novus - The government CAN'T create jobs. Not through legislation, regulation, nor decree, can the
government create jobs. Increase the cost of doing business, and you will send MORE jobs overseas.
Increase taxes, increase regulation, increase health care costs, increase resource costs, increase
fuel costs, increase labor costs........same result..........jobs leave the country.

[Novus]

Peeker - More people working = jobs created. That is definition of job creation. The produce of those jobs is wealth creation. Are you going to argue we shouldn't be putting people to work to create wealth? Putting people on unemployment and bailing out the banks has NOT worked. It is proven failed policy.


You can't create jobs by decree? Hello tell that to China who created millions of jobs by their decree and are kicking our ass as a result. China didn't say hey lets lower our wages so we can compete with Africa. No by decree they made a leap forward to make better things and compete with America.

[peeker01]

Novus - China is a communist dictatorship. China tells people how many children they can have,
and he better not be a girl. Oops.....girls grow up and have children........maybe we need some
girl children???? Their air is unbreatheable, rampant electricity shortages, water shortages. Did
I mention they don't innovate they only pirate intellectual property. China is the product of central
government planning. Just sit back and watch them fail.

Where would a disgruntled Chinese businessman move to? Africa? I doubt it.

[Novus]

Well we have sat back and watched them kick our ass for the last decade. I am not one to sit back and just watch anymore. It is time to fight back. Have you ever been to China. Their cities shine with vibrance and optimism while ours fester and stagnate. China is no backwater hell hole. That is what America is fast becoming if we don't change our ways.

[Timo]

I think our collective inevitable future is the abandonment of "wealth" creation, and more toward an economy where people who can actually do things of value for other people manage to stay afloat and provide for their own. Psychologically, Americans believe that jobs are an entitlement, and it's the political leaders who are dropping the ball by not making private businesses give them jobs so they can accumulate (spend/borrow) wealth. Interestingly enough, our insistance in clinging to this fantasy at all costs, and trying, forcing our political leaders to accommodate our warped sense of "the American Way" is the very definition of insanity. Every four years (two for Reps), we do the exact same thing and expect different results. Republicans didn't work? Well, let's try Democrats. Democrats didn't work? Well, let's try Republicans. Back and forth, back and forth, banging our heads against the wall and expecting one of those self-inflicted blows to magically change how our world operates, or at least how we see it. Well, this exercise in futility has only managed to make us bleed from our brains, and as we slowly, but surely, destroy the last refuges of natural life left on the planet in search of that magic pill called "wealth" that we all so desperately want and feel entitled to, we'll just bang our heads into that wall even harder and harder, expecting a different outcome, every time.

Yes, i will say it. Americans are INSANE! Economic statistics about who has jobs and who doesn't are never going to change that fact. In my opinion, the empire can't fall fast enough. It's giving me a headache.

[KrellEnergySource]

Another labor-related way to increase the number of jobs would be to return to having shifts to cover round-the-clock work commitments instead of issuing someone a pager and, in effect, having them be 'at work' 24 hours a day. Labor laws that allow that could be changed to labor laws that prohibit that.

What is the answer when there is not enough work available for the people that want to work in order to eat, live, and/or provide for their children? Is it to have the 'productive' produce as much as possible, and then having them support the 'unproductive' by virtue of the fact that the 'productive' have an employable skill set and are willing and able to put in as many hours as it takes to keep a company going? Is the answer that we need to turn the entire unemployed or underemployed population into entrepreneurs that then market their 'unique' services and widgets irregardless of whether those goods and services are useful and sustainable? Either approach seems short-sighted and doesn't offer our children much of a future.

Brian

[ColossalContrarian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('babystrangeloop', 'W')hat a fantasy! So many people who really produce things at white collar jobs and only have employment agreements to work 40 hours a week work much, much longer than that in order to fulfill deliverables.

[Oakley]

The entire concept of government management of the economy is the province of narcissistic people with delusions of grandeur; they think they are smarter about where money should be invested, how businesses should be run, what should be produced and what people want than the collective judgement of people acting freely to make economic decisions. For you collectivists that believe in collective action, I would think you would love the free market because it is the ultimate mechanism for the collective decisions of millions of people; it is unfortunate that you don't see the current economic system for what it is, fascism, the collusion of government and corporations to rig the markets against the average man in favor of the elite.

We don't have free markets, but rather controlled markets. The solution to our economic disaster is to restore free markets, not more government control or management. The question is not what the work week should be, but should government at all have the power to set the work week. It is not that free markets can solve the unsolvable problem of overpopulation and of economic contraction driven by resource scarcity, but it can mitigate the human suffering by eliminating the additional burden of slavery for the majority, and give people an equal chance of survival.

[dsula]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Novus', '
')The MATH doesn't lie.

[dsula]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('prajeshbhat', '
')And for those who actually run businesses-
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1873245,00.html

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Why France's 35 Hour Week Won't Die

Call it the law that just won't die. Six months after France's ruling Conservatives voted to gut the nation's famous 35-hour work week, anecdotal evidence suggests most companies are sticking with it.

But most bosses appear to have stuck with the shorter week, to avoid disputes with leisure-loving employees, and, it seems, as a useful tool in dealing with the growing economic downturn.

More crucially, perhaps, the 35-hour week's survival owes a lot to other measures the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy has passed as part of its mantra of "work more to earn more." Key to that is a provision introduced in late 2007 that makes overtime more profitable to both companies and employers by waving taxes and social charges. The ironic result: bosses and workers now find they can have their 35-hour cake and eat 25% bonus time too.

[KrellEnergySource]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dsula', '
')In the light of peakoil you can expect to have to work MUCH MUCH more to be able to feed yourself. Not less.

[Fishman]

Aaahh, the pursuit of unicorns. Novus, this is why the present administration has failed so miserably. They run the show with a bunch of academicians who know nothing of reality, never ran a company. Has this social experiment been run before? Why yes, it has, and it has failed. See France/ Germany, US etc. If you like this idea, please move to France, (PS no jobs there )

Just so you understand, you do this to a business, they employ folks for fewer hours, fewer benefits, less income coming in the worker. They will also hire fewer workers because of the overhead. You did poorly at math, terribly at history, perhaps an economics course might help. Be careful, liberal minds tend to explode in economics classes, gets messy.

[Timo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Fishman', 'A')aahh, the pursuit of unicorns. Novus, this is why the present administration has failed so miserably. They run the show with a bunch of academicians who know nothing of reality, never ran a company. Has this social experiment been run before? Why yes, it has, and it has failed. See France/ Germany, US etc. If you like this idea, please move to France, (PS no jobs there )

Just so you understand, you do this to a business, they employ folks for fewer hours, fewer benefits, less income coming in the worker. They will also hire fewer workers because of the overhead. You did poorly at math, terribly at history, perhaps an economics course might help. Be careful, liberal minds tend to explode in economics classes, gets messy.