this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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United States | News & Politics

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A.I. aside, we should get 4 day work weeks regardless.

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[–] vfreire85@lemmy.ml 15 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

employees in some sectors could easily make do with a 3 day work week, 4 hours per day, no payment reduction. all the rest is just surplus value being generated. however we know that the capitalists will never allow that, and that's the reason we need to, while pushing for work week reductions, agitate the working class today in order to build the revolution of tomorrow.

[–] unphazed@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Meanwhile my job as a phone jockey went from 500 employees to no hiring for 4 years to now 212 employees and calls are back to back with no hope of new job openings... also makes seniority rough as everyone is a veteran at this point.

[–] zonklezoop@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 days ago

Shit drives me nuts. I work for a service delivery organization and the last few years have seen us adopting a new platform that likes to talk up automation and efficiencies. Making things work is my job, but I don't hesitate to tell folks that while we can help improve and change the jobs they do, they still have to have call center and field resources.

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 15 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

Yea more like if CEOs want their company to be more successful pay people overtime to work five days a week.

[–] flandish@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

that’s nice marketing for bernie but we all know that won’t happen. not without the kind of revolutionary action that inspired our 8 hour working day, and the original “labor day.”

[–] susurrus0@lemmy.zip 3 points 5 days ago

Something you should understand about the 4-day workweek.

From the studies conducted so far we know it seems to increase overall productivity. Which means companies, or at least some, would make more money if they implemented a 4-day workweek. So then you may ask yourself: why haven't they? Don't they want to make more money?

Not necessarily. It all comes down to relative wealth. A 4-day workweek would benefit them, but it would benefit regular people more. And so the divide in wealth/power/quality of life would shrink. So technically they'd be richer, but they'd feel poorer, because we'd get closer to their level, even if by just a bit.

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

*20 hour work week.

and if extruded proof of work was meaningful work, something interesting would have happened by now

if their little genies were real there'd be a good novel by now

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

But who's going to make my fart and Trump dancing with Musk videos!??

[–] bountygiver@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You think people are making them during their work time? More free time means more people can make those.

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 0 points 6 days ago

You mean Head Fart Tuner at Turbodong2000 is not a real job?

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

All the productivity gains in the past have helped us reduced the work load so much, there's no reason AI shouldn't...
Wait, that never happened, only people forcefully getting reductions in work time have ever gotten results.

Also it's still not clear whether AI makes any sense or not. Yes, I know it is useful to some, but once you consider all the externalities (which nobody ever does, because "not my problem"), it might not be such a great deal.

Corporate will do anything but. Part time pay, no full time benefits, no pay raise, and now you need a second job.

[–] flandish@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

they’ll all just convince us we need to purchase more, thereby lowering “productivity”

[–] Flagg76@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Been having a 4 day workweek for a decade now, can heavily recommend it. (Work 4x9 hours, every Wednesday of)

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 days ago

Bernie always has terrible solutions to his valid criticisms of oligarchism. It should be illegal to work 5 days? Or more hours no matter the pay?

UBI is only empowering of people solution to US empire/oligarchism. Work as much as you want, with the power to say fuck you if conditions are not good enough for you. Cheer on AI/Robot productivity gains as it increases your UBI.

[–] Bloomcole@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Bernie the sheepdog says a lot. Ask him to say GENOCIDE

[–] crankyrebel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

True, and he refuses to call it genocide, even when pressured.

[–] Bloomcole@lemmy.world -3 points 6 days ago

Not a speech from him without the obligatory 'Hamas bad' and 'Pissrahell has the right to defend itself'.
Voted against a ceasefire, etc...
Has been a snake since forever yet the libs can't seem to notice.
And they call the Magats dumb.
Really that banana republic is a lost cause. Time for it to go.

[–] But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world -4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

As a non American can I say, does bernie ever actually propose plans or ideas or does he just go around shitting on bad ones?

Edit: why am I getting downvoted as an outside observer asking a question. It’s concerning that Americans have this NEED to be part of a cult. The right has Trump and many on the left have Bernie. If you dare to question Bernie even a little, or simply ask an unbiased question, and you get piled on.

[–] Bloomcole@lemmy.world -3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

He says a lot and want some progressive social stuff but his main function is sheepdog to keep the left in the horriblyright democratic party.
He tows the Uniparty imperialist warmongering line every time and only proposes good bills or votes for them when it's absolutely certain they wont pass anyway.
He's a snake, and so is his astroturfed "waitress" successor AOC by the way.
Now Bernie is past his date and more people finally get what he does.

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 0 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

why am I getting downvoted as an outside observer asking a question.

Welcome to ~~Reddit~~ Lemmy.

[–] Bloomcole@lemmy.world -1 points 6 days ago

Reddit: Red MAGA Lemmy: Blue MAGA

[–] IttihadChe@lemmy.ml 46 points 1 week ago (23 children)

We are already more productive than any other time in history and we don't have a 4 day work week.

If we did get a 4 day work week, the owners would not scale our pay to accommodate for less hours on the job. 15/hr over 50 hours would turn into 15/hr over 40 hours, not 18.75/hr over 40 hours.

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Suppose that, at a given moment, a certain number of people are engaged in the manufacture of pins. They make as many pins as the world needs, working (say) eight hours a day. Someone makes an invention by which the same number of men can make twice as many pins as before. But the world does not need twice as many pins: pins are already so cheap that hardly any more will be bought at a lower price. In a sensible world, everybody concerned in the manufacture of pins would take to working four hours instead of eight, and everything else would go on as before. But in the actual world this would be thought demoralizing. The men still work eight hours, there are too many pins, some employers go bankrupt, and half the men previously concerned in making pins are thrown out of work. There is, in the end, just as much leisure as on the other plan, but half the men are totally idle while half are still overworked. In this way, it is insured that the unavoidable leisure shall cause misery all round instead of being a universal source of happiness. Can anything more insane be imagined?

--Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness

[–] flandish@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

i feel like capital vol 1 should be read by everyone.

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[–] Yeller_king@reddthat.com 35 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I think the plan is to lay us off altogether.

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