An N-hour work week is like the front page of a newspaper: it has to be filled. If we say that a person should have to work so many hours to earn a living, that's the same as saying our society should have to work so many hours per person to function.
Unfortunately, that's not how the real world works. If farmers produce more food than people want to eat, the food will go uneaten and the farmers' time will have been wasted. If carpenters produce more housing than people want to live in, the housing will stand vacant and the carpenters' time will have been wasted.
Does this mean the farmers and carpenters get to work less? No, because if they only work 30 hours a week, they won't make enough money to function in the society that assumes people have to work 40 hours.
So instead some of the farmers and carpenters have to find other work that needs to be done. Which is great, but only so long as there really is other work that needs to be done. If there isn't, then the surplus farmers and carpenters have to find performative work--something to soak up 40 hours and appear valuable so they can get a paycheck.
Which is bad. Not just because it wastes the lives of the people who do that unneeded work, but because it even wastes the lives of the people who do the farming and carpenting. They have to work a full 40 too, even though everyone could be working fewer hours on jobs that matter.
I know, I know, "But if we adopt a 40-N hour work week, we'll lose lots of things that make our lives better. There will be fewer snacks to choose from at the grocery store; fewer video games, all of inferior quality; fewer computers and TVs and fewer everything that goes into making them."
And maybe so, although personally I don't think we'll lose anything we'll miss much. But we'll all have more of a life to improve for ourselves, instead of the way TV or Instagram dictates we should. My happiness will not suffer for lack of cheese puffs, and I'll actually enjoy learning how to cook a lot of things I used to buy because I will have the time and energy needed to enjoy it. So my washing machine won't have a phone app anymore. Big deal, I never used it anyway. And it least it's a lot more repairable now, since companies have been forced to figure out how to add competitive value to it without investing a lot more time in it.
I'm looking around at my world and damn near every part of it is designed to imprison me in some way. I got a bottle of shampoo saying it gave me 20% extra for free, because statistically speaking I'm more likely to think I'm getting more value than if it didn't, even though the price per ounce is the same no matter if it says it gave me 99% for free. Somebody was paid to come up with that trick. And I paid them to try that trick on me, even if I was just buying the lowest price per ounce.
Unfortunately, that's not how the real world works. If farmers produce more food than people want to eat, the food will go uneaten and the farmers' time will have been wasted. If carpenters produce more housing than people want to live in, the housing will stand vacant and the carpenters' time will have been wasted.
Does this mean the farmers and carpenters get to work less? No, because if they only work 30 hours a week, they won't make enough money to function in the society that assumes people have to work 40 hours.
So instead some of the farmers and carpenters have to find other work that needs to be done. Which is great, but only so long as there really is other work that needs to be done. If there isn't, then the surplus farmers and carpenters have to find performative work--something to soak up 40 hours and appear valuable so they can get a paycheck.
Which is bad. Not just because it wastes the lives of the people who do that unneeded work, but because it even wastes the lives of the people who do the farming and carpenting. They have to work a full 40 too, even though everyone could be working fewer hours on jobs that matter.
I know, I know, "But if we adopt a 40-N hour work week, we'll lose lots of things that make our lives better. There will be fewer snacks to choose from at the grocery store; fewer video games, all of inferior quality; fewer computers and TVs and fewer everything that goes into making them."
And maybe so, although personally I don't think we'll lose anything we'll miss much. But we'll all have more of a life to improve for ourselves, instead of the way TV or Instagram dictates we should. My happiness will not suffer for lack of cheese puffs, and I'll actually enjoy learning how to cook a lot of things I used to buy because I will have the time and energy needed to enjoy it. So my washing machine won't have a phone app anymore. Big deal, I never used it anyway. And it least it's a lot more repairable now, since companies have been forced to figure out how to add competitive value to it without investing a lot more time in it.
I'm looking around at my world and damn near every part of it is designed to imprison me in some way. I got a bottle of shampoo saying it gave me 20% extra for free, because statistically speaking I'm more likely to think I'm getting more value than if it didn't, even though the price per ounce is the same no matter if it says it gave me 99% for free. Somebody was paid to come up with that trick. And I paid them to try that trick on me, even if I was just buying the lowest price per ounce.
This kind of shit does not make me feel free.