Bernie Sanders, the Senate’s, most prominent declared socialist, wants the government to require private companies, to reduce the work week to 32 hours for the same pay.
Author's Note: I had a math error in the original. A 20% reduction in hours works leads to an effective hourly pay raise of 25%, not 20%. I have updated this to correct my error.
Either number is unpalatable. No matter what government issues as its edict, you can't spend more making a product than you can sell it for in the marketplace. This is simple, but the simpletons of the left never understand it.
Pat said a lot of right things, so did Ron Paul. the so called intelligentsia are deliberate destroyers. Some of them are just mind controlled and don't know that but enough do. Not that it matters but I have said for sometime that too many people still believe this is U.S.A. circa 1980.
A few years ago on a gun forum I said the future was legacy and traditional Americans being replaced by third world illegal aliens. All the indicators were there. 1965 immigration act, amnesty act1986 etc. I was criticized, " we're a melting pot, I'm married to a Chinese woman" are the two moronic comments I recall.
a man by the name of Israel Zangwill invented the term "melting pot" to describe America in 1909. Here is his picture.
Zangwill was born in Whitechapel, London on 21 January 1864, in a family of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. His father, Moses Zangwill, was from what is now Latvia, and his mother, Ellen Hannah Marks Zangwill, was from what is now Poland. He dedicated his life to championing the cause of people he considered oppressed, becoming involved with topics such as Jewish emancipation, Jewish assimilation, territorialism, Zionism, and women’s suffrage.
Saw an interview of the founder of Home Depot - he made the same point as the author - the work still needs to be done, so extra workers need to be hired, and the extra expense increases inflation.
Bear in mind that most politicians are trained as lawyers. One of many fields esteemed by our "intelligentsia" in which one can be assured there will be no mathematics required. The people doing the lawmaking, in many cases, lack the most basic intellectual tools to evaluate the consequences of their actions.
We err in thinking of these people as intelligent and educated--it's possible they are intelligent (i.e., have the capacity to learn what is necessary to make good policy), but without an understanding of mathematics and economics they are not really educated. They are merely credentialed, in one field, and lack the education and humility to realize how deficient they are.
An unintended consequence of these government mandates will be to drive businesses towards automation. It's already happening with fast food outlets. As AI and robotics mature why wouldn't businesses eat the initial upfront cost of sophisticated machines in exchange for not having to deal with employees and the government/union hassles that go along with them?
You want a 32 hour work week, Bernie? How about a 0 hour work week? Just think how much time people will have to self-actualize and write poetry, do arts and crafts - or whatever Pelosi waxed ecstatic about a couple of years ago. We'll become a nation of Eloi. The only problem is, there will be Morlocks too.
Bernie Sanders has never had a real job in his life. Like many who vote for his party, he has no idea how value is created, how free enterprise works, and why simply issuing government mandates cannot produce value. The opposite. It burdens businesses while pricing goods and services out of reach for many consumers. There is a reason socialist and communist governments have bread lines and inflated currencies. It doesn't work! You can't create bread for the masses by having some government goon declaring how private enterprise will function. Those governments routinely fail to deliver to citizens the goods and services they need.
Great article. I am amazed that so many fellow citizens don’t understand what this would do to their lives. How did we create so many dumbasses in this country?
Thanks for your comment contributing to the discussion, Tod. Here is a partial answer to your question: In 2013 I was walking across Switzerland, solo. During my trek I met a Suisse schoolteacher whose, itinerary and route sometimes overlapped with mine. As we chatted during the walk, she told me that she taught economics to Suisse students in their equivalent of our high schools. She told me that Suisse high school students were required to take TWO YEARS of economics! Think about that and the fact that many of those making national policy for us have never had so much as one semester of economics. School administrators stress what is important to them. Draw your own conclusions.
Hold on, now! You are expecting the people who want to be lazy and have other people pay for their things... To THINK? At all? To think about the future? About something other than themselves? What the hell is wrong with you?
My wife often tells me that most people don't appreciate my sense of humor. But now I see that in you I have a kindred spirit. Don't worry - I understood and appreciated it completely!
But I wonder how many people today - especially young people- could tell you what happened there. But, you have given me an idea for a future article, so thanks.
It's a Bachelor Honors Thesis submitted in 1995, but it provides good historical information and plenty of bibliography both about how the Khmer Rouge got started in the Sorbonne in Paris and at Cornell University (read the thesis), and how people supported the tyranny without any idea of what was actually going on.
Thank you for this, Wes. I have saved this article to read when I have time to digest the whole thing. For various reasons, I have a keen interest in what happened in Cambodia, so I look forward to reading it.
If productivity has risen, say 3x per worker why aren’t wages rising apace, or nearly so? The highest minimum wage adjusted for inflation was under LBJ, now about $11/hr. 40% of the US workforce earns less than that, mol.
There is also only one chance to establish the "same" pay this was all based on in the first place. After that, it's all hypothetical. Firms would just adjust for it in the accounting, and no one would get a real wage raise for the next 20 years.
Of course, the Bernie crowd would then call for wage controls. Which they would try to baseline with some version of the Labor Theory of Value. Bad ideas never die with these people.
"As AI and robotics mature" - my life focus after my Army commitment was computer software. There is excessive incorrect hype about AI/robotics. Neither field can expand as hyped unless quantum computers are successfully developed. Then operating systems must be created for them, then quantum computer languages, then.... In short, it will not happen in our lifetime - maybe sometime after 2050.
Bernie, sounding more like Kamala every day, has again opened his mouth without thinking first, unlike AOC who is incapable of logical thought. A four day work week is a fine way to get the job done, and there are ways to get it done to everyone's satisfaction. Bernie blew it. Just use as a standard, the 10/4 plan, for hours worked per day and number of days per week. Vacation based on a 40/7 (40 hours per a 7 day week) . Bernie is trolling for votes, and his (votes with Democrats) Independent moniker sees offering another giveaway as a way to do it. Weekend at Bernies's for this idea.
Author's Note: I had a math error in the original. A 20% reduction in hours works leads to an effective hourly pay raise of 25%, not 20%. I have updated this to correct my error.
Either number is unpalatable. No matter what government issues as its edict, you can't spend more making a product than you can sell it for in the marketplace. This is simple, but the simpletons of the left never understand it.
It's all peaches 'n cream until they run out of other people's money to spend.
Unfortunately, we're being intentionally subjected to the Cloward-Piven Strategy...and no one notices.
You are one of the relatively few who understand how deliberate and calculated is their intent. Same for the border policy.
along with the kalergi and alinsky plans. Cultural marxism from gramsci. And no one notices that either.
Some years ago Pat Buchanan talked about the culture war, and was roundly derided by the intelligentsia for doing so. Who’s the fool now?
Pat said a lot of right things, so did Ron Paul. the so called intelligentsia are deliberate destroyers. Some of them are just mind controlled and don't know that but enough do. Not that it matters but I have said for sometime that too many people still believe this is U.S.A. circa 1980.
A few years ago on a gun forum I said the future was legacy and traditional Americans being replaced by third world illegal aliens. All the indicators were there. 1965 immigration act, amnesty act1986 etc. I was criticized, " we're a melting pot, I'm married to a Chinese woman" are the two moronic comments I recall.
a man by the name of Israel Zangwill invented the term "melting pot" to describe America in 1909. Here is his picture.
Zangwill was born in Whitechapel, London on 21 January 1864, in a family of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. His father, Moses Zangwill, was from what is now Latvia, and his mother, Ellen Hannah Marks Zangwill, was from what is now Poland. He dedicated his life to championing the cause of people he considered oppressed, becoming involved with topics such as Jewish emancipation, Jewish assimilation, territorialism, Zionism, and women’s suffrage.
Saw an interview of the founder of Home Depot - he made the same point as the author - the work still needs to be done, so extra workers need to be hired, and the extra expense increases inflation.
Uncle Roasty, it is sort of economics 101, isn’t it? But that apparently is an advanced concept that many of our politicos never grasped.
My theory is that politicos know that the only politically feasible way to get ahead of the national debt is massive inflation.
You may be right although you give some of them more credit for thinking than I do.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Bear in mind that most politicians are trained as lawyers. One of many fields esteemed by our "intelligentsia" in which one can be assured there will be no mathematics required. The people doing the lawmaking, in many cases, lack the most basic intellectual tools to evaluate the consequences of their actions.
We err in thinking of these people as intelligent and educated--it's possible they are intelligent (i.e., have the capacity to learn what is necessary to make good policy), but without an understanding of mathematics and economics they are not really educated. They are merely credentialed, in one field, and lack the education and humility to realize how deficient they are.
An unintended consequence of these government mandates will be to drive businesses towards automation. It's already happening with fast food outlets. As AI and robotics mature why wouldn't businesses eat the initial upfront cost of sophisticated machines in exchange for not having to deal with employees and the government/union hassles that go along with them?
You want a 32 hour work week, Bernie? How about a 0 hour work week? Just think how much time people will have to self-actualize and write poetry, do arts and crafts - or whatever Pelosi waxed ecstatic about a couple of years ago. We'll become a nation of Eloi. The only problem is, there will be Morlocks too.
Just so.
Bernie Sanders has never had a real job in his life. Like many who vote for his party, he has no idea how value is created, how free enterprise works, and why simply issuing government mandates cannot produce value. The opposite. It burdens businesses while pricing goods and services out of reach for many consumers. There is a reason socialist and communist governments have bread lines and inflated currencies. It doesn't work! You can't create bread for the masses by having some government goon declaring how private enterprise will function. Those governments routinely fail to deliver to citizens the goods and services they need.
Great article. I am amazed that so many fellow citizens don’t understand what this would do to their lives. How did we create so many dumbasses in this country?
Thanks for your comment contributing to the discussion, Tod. Here is a partial answer to your question: In 2013 I was walking across Switzerland, solo. During my trek I met a Suisse schoolteacher whose, itinerary and route sometimes overlapped with mine. As we chatted during the walk, she told me that she taught economics to Suisse students in their equivalent of our high schools. She told me that Suisse high school students were required to take TWO YEARS of economics! Think about that and the fact that many of those making national policy for us have never had so much as one semester of economics. School administrators stress what is important to them. Draw your own conclusions.
In case you are interested in my walk, check it out here: https://bravoblue6.wordpress.com/the-bravo-blues/
Hold on, now! You are expecting the people who want to be lazy and have other people pay for their things... To THINK? At all? To think about the future? About something other than themselves? What the hell is wrong with you?
I hope you know I'm teasing.
My wife often tells me that most people don't appreciate my sense of humor. But now I see that in you I have a kindred spirit. Don't worry - I understood and appreciated it completely!
Best,
John
Phew! 😁
The purest form of socialism was practiced in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge.
But I wonder how many people today - especially young people- could tell you what happened there. But, you have given me an idea for a future article, so thanks.
This paper may help:
https://reaction.la/canon.htm
It's a Bachelor Honors Thesis submitted in 1995, but it provides good historical information and plenty of bibliography both about how the Khmer Rouge got started in the Sorbonne in Paris and at Cornell University (read the thesis), and how people supported the tyranny without any idea of what was actually going on.
Thank you for this, Wes. I have saved this article to read when I have time to digest the whole thing. For various reasons, I have a keen interest in what happened in Cambodia, so I look forward to reading it.
Bernie has never had a job or owned a business. He's never had to make payroll or pay bills. Efgo, he's an idiot.
If productivity has risen, say 3x per worker why aren’t wages rising apace, or nearly so? The highest minimum wage adjusted for inflation was under LBJ, now about $11/hr. 40% of the US workforce earns less than that, mol.
There is also only one chance to establish the "same" pay this was all based on in the first place. After that, it's all hypothetical. Firms would just adjust for it in the accounting, and no one would get a real wage raise for the next 20 years.
Of course, the Bernie crowd would then call for wage controls. Which they would try to baseline with some version of the Labor Theory of Value. Bad ideas never die with these people.
ONGOING SUICIDAL IDIOCY DESTROYING OUR REPUBLIC🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
"As AI and robotics mature" - my life focus after my Army commitment was computer software. There is excessive incorrect hype about AI/robotics. Neither field can expand as hyped unless quantum computers are successfully developed. Then operating systems must be created for them, then quantum computer languages, then.... In short, it will not happen in our lifetime - maybe sometime after 2050.
Bernie, sounding more like Kamala every day, has again opened his mouth without thinking first, unlike AOC who is incapable of logical thought. A four day work week is a fine way to get the job done, and there are ways to get it done to everyone's satisfaction. Bernie blew it. Just use as a standard, the 10/4 plan, for hours worked per day and number of days per week. Vacation based on a 40/7 (40 hours per a 7 day week) . Bernie is trolling for votes, and his (votes with Democrats) Independent moniker sees offering another giveaway as a way to do it. Weekend at Bernies's for this idea.
Thanks for your contribution to the discussion.