In the NY Times of 5/27/2012 there is an essay by Tim Jackson, who is a prominent UK advocate of shorter working time, and associated with The New Economics Foundation and its demand for a 21 hour work week.
Jackson makes a shocking error and compounds that with what is a profoundly wrong-headed strategy to achieve his goals. The Opinion Piece is at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/opinion/sunday/lets-be-less-productive.html. The error is this: He has confused "productivity gains" with "working faster." The examples he gives, of doctors seeing more patients an hour, or teachers teaching ever bigger classes, are not productivity gains but speed-ups. If he'd used a factory example and talked of speeding up the line, perhaps the error would have jumped out at him. Jackson recommends a change, an overturning really, of the culture of capitalism and would achieve that, it seems, by telling us it is a good idea. Sharply cutting the work week is attainable, has frequently been achieved before in the USA. Jackson's recommendation might follow, but cannot lead a sharp cut in hours. Gene _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
