Saturday, July 19, 2014

Sam Frizell — The World’s Second-Richest Man Thinks You Should Work Only 3 Days a Week

Carlos Slim, the world’s second-richest man finally said the one thing we’ve all been waiting for a self-made billionaire to say: work less. Way less.
At a business conference in Paraguay, the telecommunications magnate said it was time for a “radical overhaul” in the way people work, the Financial Timesreports: people should only work three days a week.…
But there’s a catch: in exchange for working fewer days a week, we should work for more of our lives. Instead of retiring at 50 or 60, workers should work until the age of 70 or 75, the 74-year-old Slim said.
Time
The World’s Second-Richest Man Thinks You Should Work Only 3 Days a Week
Sam Frizell

For this to work, the capital and labor share need to become more equalized in order to support demand with increasing gains in productivity from technological innovation that go primarily to owners of capital and high-end workers. But it's doable. Just means shifting the moral attitude toward work away from the dominant Protestant ethic that is now an artifact of history that has outlived its usefulness.

13 comments:

Matt Franko said...

"away from the dominant Protestant ethic"

Right like: "idle hands are the devil's workshop... blah, blah. blah...."

LOL!!!!!

Good one Tom... rsp

Matt Franko said...

PS btw this is BS also: "in exchange for working fewer days a week, we should work for more of our lives."

this in not necessary either...

Tom Hickey said...

Agree that the working longer in life is not necessary, but at least the proposal is a giant step forward, warts and all. Plus, it has the added advantage of coming from a plutocrat rather than a "socialist." It definitely moves the ball down the field.

Jan said...

While we “miserably await a future, which restores the past”, we should “break with this dying society never to be reborn”. Such was the certitude of philosopher André Gorz, who passed away just five years ago, recall both Christophe Fourel, author of André Gorz: - http://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/thinking-beyond-capitalism-with-andre-gorz/

Critique of Economic Reason: Summary
Andre Gorz http://www.antenna.nl/~waterman/gorz.html

Farewell to the Proletariat
Andre Gorz
http://breadlover.egloos.com/4012200

Jan said...

Why the precariat requires a basic income -Prof. Guy Standing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WaA8zqjBSk

Brian Romanchuk said...

Working longer (part time) may be a good idea, but it can't be applied to a lot of jobs. Telling people in their 70s to move furniture is rather dubious...

Tom Hickey said...

I think that idea is that after some time one involved in physical labor becomes a foreman or supervisor.

Anonymous said...

Good heavens, do you Americans believe just anything? Do you people have any concrete idea of what it is like in Mexico, and why?

Any idea of the odious interventions of your country. Any idea of your drug-besotted population? Any idea of why Salinas de Gortari could privatize and make billionaires like Slim.

Well, don't worry. You're well on the way to becoming a second Mexico thanks to the oligarchs ruling you. You'll soon see what it is like--more or less--through the haze of your degenerated and well-propagandized psyches.
You'll still think that you're the exceptional people.

"It definitely moves the ball down the field."

This is a summit of American senility and self-satisfaction.

Or how about this priceless exchange:

Working longer (part time) may be a good idea, but it can't be applied to a lot of jobs. Telling people in their 70s to move furniture is rather dubious...

July 20, 2014 at 8:48 AM
Blogger Tom Hickey said...

I think that idea is that after some time one involved in physical labor becomes a foreman or supervisor.

Oh my god!

Roger Erickson said...

Add Foremanual Labor alongside Foreplay in our lexicon? :)

Tom Hickey said...

@ Jorge

While I sympathize with your point of view, if the US would slip way from being the global center and the middle class were to be hollowed out to the point of being have-nots, there would be a revolt here and the population is heavily armed, well stocked with ammo, and fundamentally libertarian with a small "l".

Americans can be fooled for a while and they are also patient, but they can't be fooled forever and there is a limit to patience in economic contraction. People are already waking up to the massive propaganda campaign and lying by government officials and politicians. Respect for government is at a low point.

Once a certain standard of living is attained, the people expect progress or at least stability and if that is threatened the then deal is off and anything goes. There would be massive social unrest, and it's questionable whether the security forces could prevail against a massive popular revolt.

An attempt to impose martial law would be the finish of America as we know it. What the outcome would be is anyone's guess, but I don't see Americans accepting dictatorship. The motto of the State of New Hampshire is "Live free or die," they mean it, and I think they speak for much of America. I have serious doubts that the security forces would back a war on the people and most of the security forces live among the people. Their lives and the lives of their families would be a risk if they were perceived as complicit.

Some of the plutocracy and political leadership is already figuring this out, especially since the financial disaster and aftermath and the political paralysis preventing government from addressing what most Americans think are the issues that matter. Ordinary Americans are mightily pissed off at this point.

Even if the only issue is rising productivity going chiefly to capital share with labor being crammed down, there will be social, political and economic problems that will lead to change in the face of America in one direction or another. If workers in general don't perceive themselves getting a fair shake, or worse, getting the short end of the stick, or the shaft, then there will be change of some sort.

Revolt is always a last resort. There are other options short of that, one of the them obviously being regime change through the ballot box. Another is a lot more people dropping out of the system and creating their own parallel society, governance, and economy, essentially ignoring TPTB. This is already underway since the countercultural revolution of the Sixties and Seventies. This is what economic moves like open source and Bitcoin are about.

I am still of the view that Strauss & Howe's The Fourth Turning and Ravi Batra's The New Golden Age: The Coming Revolution against Political Corruption and Economic Chaos, although I am more tentative about the outcome than Batra, as are Strauss & Howe. While I am tentative about the outcome, I am also optimistic.

But my view is that the whole world is going to have go through a considerable period of travail before coming out the other side. That transition is not going to be pretty, and we are already some years into it. But this is just the beginning.

Tom Hickey said...

I should add that the next recession is going to be telling, especially if it is severe, coming off a weak recovery that still has many reeling. And if government doesn't get ahead of the curve, and there is no indication either that it will, or even knows what to do, there will be blow back.

Anonymous said...

...there would be a revolt here and the population is heavily armed, well stocked with ammo, and fundamentally libertarian with a small "l".
--------------
Uh huh, those herds of 300 pounders at Walmart are a formidable force indeed. And really, lots of shotguns and the like can't do much in the face of seriously militarized police and mercenary forces.

I could mention another dozen strikes against "Americans" and wage-slave dead broke, TV addled, and highly racist American society, but I'll just wish you good luck.

Tom Hickey said...

We'll see when the next recession hits.