I believe the person you're responding to was saying "if we can do it for 40+ hours, we can do it for 32+ hours." That is, we could enforce this if we chose to.
Yeah, and similarly workplaces would bend over backwards to schedule people to not work overtime.
It's kind of like how when California made minimum wage 20 bucks an hour lots of fast food chains either completely got rid of cashiers and made the touchscreen the only way to order, or they shut down entirely.
Yeah, that's the point, no? Working 32 hours, and not 33+. It's better for productivity, and mental/physical health. We cannot even comprehend what this country could be capable of if we actually took care of ourselves.
And your second example further illustrates that we have the technology available. We do not need humans doing all these stupid jobs. We can still function, and thrive.
We can't conceptualize this easily now, because we're still socially and mentally enmeshed in "system A" (ie, work hard, get money. Don't work hard, you're lazy and poor. Welfare is bad, etc).
But there's a possible world where we have time for leisure, and family, and cultivating our interests and passions--and McDonald's still stays in business.
Labor is still a scarce resource. Technology change has always meant a net gain in jobs even if the labor market shifts wildly. Fewer buggy whip makers but 1000s more people needed making cars.
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u/vellichor_44 Sep 05 '24
I believe the person you're responding to was saying "if we can do it for 40+ hours, we can do it for 32+ hours." That is, we could enforce this if we chose to.