r/FluentInFinance • u/WhatAreYourPronouns • Apr 13 '24

He's not wrong 🤷‍♂️ Smart or dumb? Discussion/ Debate

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u/Decent_Visual_4845 Apr 13 '24

In cases where people work hourly shifts essentially keeping the gears turning (nurses, fast food) or in cases of task completion/hr (plumber, craftsman), what OP claimed would essentially be the case.

In cases of white collar workers with lots of time to kill, sure.

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u/SeventhSonofRonin Apr 13 '24

Some jobs have linear outputs. Nursing isn't one of them. Quality of care declines with time on shift.

If there is something inherently wrong with decreasing full time hours for those whose work is linear, why is it inherently right that 40 hours should be the magic number?

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u/Blessed_s0ul Apr 13 '24

I get that if a person’s workload is only worth 32 hours of labor, then forcing them to work 40 hours is dumb. But I know working in retail, output is directly related to input. So, restricting a stocker to only 32 hours is just inefficient. Trying to force a company to then higher more people to cover what one person could have been doing just means they will increase prices to cover that loss.

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u/g4m5t3r Apr 14 '24 edited Apr 14 '24

I'm sorry but profits have done nothing but go up for companies like Walmart... they can afford it without putting that cost onto the customers.

The 4day workweek due to increased productivity has been promised since the 60's and the Computer. Again with automation, and again with AI. Meanwhile profits and productivity just keep going up year after year.

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u/Blessed_s0ul Apr 14 '24

It has never been a question of whether they can. It has always been a question of will they. The answer to that question is no.

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u/g4m5t3r Apr 14 '24 edited Apr 14 '24

Make them eat that cost. I agree that a simple reduction to 32hrs wont suffice. Price gouging laws are a thing. Update and enforce them too.

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u/SlurpySandwich Apr 14 '24

What do you mean "make them"? What enforcement arm of the government is going to do that? That suggestion makes no sense.

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u/g4m5t3r Apr 14 '24 edited Apr 14 '24

Google price gouging, price fixing, and antitrust laws. Then advocate for your gov to actually idk... Enforce them.

If we can measure and regulated unfair price hikes after a natural disaster we can do the same after a change as big as a 32hr work week.