25 October 2011

Dramatically reduce unemployment - with no cost to government - by instituting a 35 hour work week

Tuesday, October 25, 2011 (UPDATED 15 SEPT 2013!; new petition currently active)


Dramatically reduce unemployment - with no cost to government - by instituting a 35 hour work week



Please sign my federal petition:
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/a-35-hour-work-week-will

Whatever the response is, it will at least bring this issue to the attention of American politics which is the first step toward action.
It may never happen, but it will get people thinking about things they take for granted; like the purpose of the economy, production, employment, unemployment, distribution of wealth, etc
.

It has become common practice when talking about the economy or the market to treat them as though they were an end in and of themselves, and inherent good regardless of their effects. We seem to have completely forgotten that the whole point of having an economy in the first place is to serve and better the lives of actual people. Over the past half century improvements to the economy have not translated to improvements in the lives of the majority of Americans. We all need to stop, step back a moment, and ask the question: in that case, what is the point?
When individual citizens are asked to make sacrifices for the sake of "the economy", that means citizens are here to serve the markets, instead of the markets being here to serve the citizens.


The petition website has a character limit; here the original text I wrote for it: