Total American Work Hours ÷ Capable Work Force =
By J A Ridley, 7th Jul 2011 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutBusinessEthics
This article proposes that in a rational society the amount of work to be done would be equally shared by the available work force. Read this article to find out how long your work week should be.
- Capitalism experiment is over
- No over-worked until everyone has work.
- Take what you need, leave some for others
- Stand together and regain your right
- Recent labor reports
Capitalism experiment is over
The current capitalist paradigm has many unemployed workers (losers) and the rest working 60 hours a week (losers). We think those that are working two jobs are real go-getters but is it OK to have two jobs when your neighbor has none? Actually this seems selfish to me but if you think about it, it is the root assumption of capitalism. No wonder we accidently got sidetracked into selfish behavior, it was the plan. Perhaps no one gets two jobs until everyone has one. We can make these choices as moral individuals in a rational society.
No over-worked until everyone has work.
Should we allow the corporate entities that recently bought our companies make some of us work way too much while denying our neighbor a job? Perhaps we should think of our unemployed neighbor when our employer asks us to work overtime. No overtime allowed until everyone that wants a job has one, right?. Sounds rational to me!
Take what you need, leave some for others
Refuse to work two jobs until everyone has one. How can we choose otherwise and consider ourselves evolved, moral beings. We can be the change. Remember your neighbor without a job has now gone into foreclosure driving the value of your house down. Maybe we should consider his fate as our own because it is true. Remember our basic human qualities of loving-kindness and what that means, we cannot continue to pollute our souls with this indecent behavior. Our power to create heaven on earth is inherent in our purity, it is no accident that the corporate elite want us to engage in this heart pollution. The slaves must not learn of their power to create what ever they wish, that would be the end of the elite.
Stand together and regain your right
We must remember. if we all stand as one and demand these basic human rights it will be done. We need to wake up and start shaping this new future ourselves. Perhaps it should be one job per family with a 20 hour work week, with internet homeschooling and community supported gardens where the schools used to be. Sell the school buses to the highest bidder, tell Libya we only need half as much gas as we did before, woo hoo! Let the global mind (internet) take over the education of the new generation and immediately save the country, balance the budget, make life good again in a America. All we have to do is refuse overtime, only one job per family and close the school/start the garden.
Recent labor reports
The Center for American Progress recently reported:
- "Work-family conflict is much higher in the United States than elsewhere in the developed world. One reason is that Americans work longer hours than workers in most other developed countries, including Japan, where there is a word, karoshi, for “death by overwork.” The typical American middle-income family put in an average of 11 more hours a week in 2006 than it did in 1979."
- "Not only do American families work longer hours; they do so with fewer laws to support working families. Only the United States lacks paid maternity-leave laws among the 30 industrialized democracies in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The only family leave available to Americans is unpaid, limited to three months, and covers only about half the labor force. Discrimination against workers with family responsibilities, illegal throughout Europe, is forbidden only indirectly here. Americans also lack paid sick days, limits on mandatory overtime, the right to request work-time flexibility without retaliation, and proportional wages for part-time work. All exist elsewhere in the developed world."
- "In 1960, only 20 percent of mothers worked, and only 18.5 percent were unmarried. Because the most common family was comprised of a male breadwinner and stay-at-home mother, employers were able to shape jobs around that ideal, with the expectation that the breadwinner was available for work anytime, anywhere, for as long as his employer needed him. Even then, this model did not serve the small but significant share of families who did not fit this mold, yet the model stuck."
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Comments
8th Jul 2011 (#)
Awesome, J A. Give 'em hell. Great star page.
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8th Jul 2011 (#)
Thanks Steve. I think we are all doing our part.
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8th Jul 2011 (#)
And the problem is only getting worse...... Congratulations on the well deserved Star page! Great video, too!
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8th Jul 2011 (#)
Thanks for your comments, Carol
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8th Jul 2011 (#)
Great job J.A. congrats on Star! I agree here, and I loved how you referenced the golden rule!! American workers do need more down time, it is particularly difficult for working mothers in America and this effects so many.....reform is needed!!
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8th Jul 2011 (#)
Thank You Maria.
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8th Jul 2011 (#)
Brilliantly, profound penmanship J.A., Thank you.
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8th Jul 2011 (#)
Great compliment it means a lot to me, thanks
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8th Jul 2011 (#)
Powerful article, JA, and as usual, it has great impact and truth...Great Star page...
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8th Jul 2011 (#)
Songbird thanks for reading my little bit:)
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8th Jul 2011 (#)
JA, I just can not go along with all of this. You have some valid points of we should make more time for ourselves but, to peg all people in one category is just not right. I worked two jobs for one too many years back in the 80's. I did it out of neccesity, not out of greed. My husband works a lot of hours at his company because, he is also taking care of me (physically challenged) and my brother whom is mentally challenged and neither of us are able to work. I feel we should take things on a case by case basis and not link all into one, that is just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions. Congrats on the star page. Thank you for sharing.:)
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8th Jul 2011 (#)
No problem Denise:) I am just trying to work through some things. My problem isn't with the people but with a system that requires us to be uncaring and unsharing, My point wasn't meant to be personal but a general statement. You and your husband shouldn't have to make those sacrifices for survival. We can do better! Thanks for the comments, I love it:)
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9th Jul 2011 (#)
I like your thoughts here dude. Commendable...
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11th Jul 2011 (#)
Thank you ppruel
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10th Jul 2011 (#)
People get very stressed when they work too much. It is a very bad idea since health can suffer greatly.
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11th Jul 2011 (#)
We must work to suffer less:)
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11th Jul 2011 (#)
The time of ISM is over, only a great change in thinking will work. THE REVOLTION
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11th Jul 2011 (#)
or REVOLUTION
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11th Jul 2011 (#)
DA
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11th Jul 2011 (#)
Great starpage, congrats!!! :) Yes, I guess we are living through the last days of capitalism. And then some other system will get into its place, but unless we change our "necessities" and go back to the "Golden Rules", nothing much will happen. Happiness lies within, necessity is a symptom of this me-me-me attitude of the current materialistic society.
Ora et labora - Pray and work - really is the only necessity, everything else needed for a happy life, God will provide, I found and find this to be true.
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11th Jul 2011 (#)
I love your words and your perspective is refreshing. Thanks for your comments, Chysolite
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12th Jul 2011 (#)
Ridley, you have rightly highlighted the brutal side of American Capitalism. When money becomes the God, this is what happens.
I fully agree that universal principles of love and care for others should run the political system, not merely the greed and more greed. There is plenty on this planet for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed.
The US should now start treating its people with more human dignity. Companies' philosophy of "maximizing shareholders' profit" need changing to "maximizing employees well-being and minimizing work-hours".
If people revolt against the present system of exploitation and press for change, everything is possible.
You are truly an independent and original thinker; I admire you for that.
Thanks for writing a great article.
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13th Jul 2011 (#)
So true.... a society without morals is not much of a society. Peace & Love
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24th Aug 2011 (#)
Interesting that you talk about capitalism as an experiment when the majority of writers think of it as always having existed and always going to exist.
In reality today we have enough automated production capability that we do not have to work in the traditional sense. Yet what we have not done is turn society around in such a way that considers the contribution that each person can make to the society as a whole.
I calculated in 1980 that we had to reorganise society to shorten the working month, extend the intellectual contribution that each of us can make and there was one further element we had to take our turn doing the nasty jobs that none of us wish to do. This way we can all live more meaningful lives.
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12th Nov 2011 (#)
yea, verily
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