Discussing Bernie defending his 32 hour work week proposal

 So Bernie was accosted by fox business over his 32 hour work week proposal with them trying to push the agenda that he wanted to raise taxes and screw over businesses and blah blah blah. ya know, normal conservative BS about OH NOES WHAT ABOUT THE POOR BUSINESSES and ya know what? if I were there, I'd just say, much like FDR, any business that can't handle it doesn't deserve to exist, and move on from there.

However, after a little heckling from the reporter, bernie responded, talking about how our economy is far more productive than it's ever been but all the gains have gone to the top. And he's right. They have. Our economy has grown 3-4x over per capita since like the 1950s depending on the inflation metric you go by, but since the 1970s or so, most of that wealth has gone straight to the top. All things considered, a 32 work week is actually pretty mild and even conservative. While in my own analyses of the situation, I end up just assuming that a reduced work week would scale linearly with productivity, most evidence shows that it does not, and that most workers are just as productive with fewer hours as they are with more, which tells me a lot of workers are just padding out their time to hit the arbitrary 40 hour standard by working less efficiently than they would otherwise. Which is, admittedly, a weakness of having a mandated work week, although without one, the pressure of the "free market" would cause people to work as many hours as they could bear, because capitalism has no inherent counterpressure to stop such behavior because workers are just de facto slaves forced to be there. A free marketeer would argue that someone who works 100 hours a week in sweatshop conditions CHOOSES to, which is completely ludicrous on face value. No one chooses that but out of desperation. But that's the power of the free market without any mandates or workers having the freedom as power to say no to bad jobs. So mandates are better than nothing. 

But yeah. I just wanted to discuss this as he actually answered better than I would have. I would've leaned into the premise behind the question with "oh noes those poor business owners....not..." and Bernie's answer was much better, and you know what? He's 100% correct. It's insane we're still working the same work weeks as our grandparents. If we wanted their living standards, we could work LESS than 15 hour weeks in theory. Maybe even 8 hours. Not saying that's good because growth is good, more stuff is good, it's a possibility. As I said, the 32 hour work week is actually a very mild proposal that borders on getting something for nothing. Heck if some studies on it are right it literally is something or nothing, the same productivity with fewer hours. This should be a no brainer, but let's face it, for a lot of people who oppose this, it's not about the result, it's about controlling people and it's about fearing a shift in culture away from unquestioning loyalty to jobs to workers...realizing there's more to life than work and actually wanting more out of their lives than being wage slaves. So keep that in mind. The right isnt rational when they reflexively oppose this stuff. Because to them, they DO literally want us working all the time because their conception of the world demands it. They're still stuck in this protestant work ethic mindset that we need to be repressed for our own good and spend most of our time working and not having lives outside of work. Honestly, these psychos shouldnt be let anywhere near public policy, but sadly they are. Which is why i push for the opposite of what they want unapologetically.