... and paid family leave = less work hours. Both Bernie and Hillary have called for this on national TV.
Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] (202) 448-2898 x1 On Sat, Jan 9, 2016 at 5:54 PM, raghu <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sat, Jan 9, 2016 at 2:23 PM, Eugene Coyle <[email protected]> wrote: > >> The first type of response, from the hipster element, has been a sneer. >> >> The second type of response, from Carrol Cox mainly, has been to support >> the idea but dismiss it because the political campaign to achieve it has >> not been described or specified. >> > > > Oh you forgot the third and most common type of response: it is impossible > to make any advance towards short working hours as long as the capitalist > system is in place. Until the working class recognizes this great truth, no > politics along these lines is even possible. So we all need to go back and > start organizing (:-). > > > But seriously, I don't think your criticism is entirely fair. Can you > point to one example of a "hipster" type on PEN-L who "sneered" at the idea > of reduced work hours? (Are there hipsters on PEN-L?) > > It IS fair on your part to feel that the idea of reduced work hours does > not get the attention it perhaps deserves in terms of discussion time on > PEN-L. My own instinctive response to previous discussions of that topic > can be described as a "shrug" (as distinct from a "sneer"): after years of > observing the terms of this argument, I find that I wholeheartedly agree > with it in principle. Ok, but what then? The second type of response you > refer to above is not without merit and I submit it shows a certain lack of > imagination on the part of the promoters of this idea i.e. yourself, Tom > Walker et al. > > You are also being unfair in another way: a campaign for a "30 hour work > week" is not the only way to achieve shorter work hours. Reforming and > tightening overtime policies would be a modest but important step in this > same direction. Legally mandated *regularization* of work hours for e.g. > retail and fast food employees would make the lives of lots of people much > better even without a shortening of the work week. An earlier retirement > age for soc sec and medicare eligibility would help too. Mandated vacation > time, sick leave can all help towards this same goal. Etc. > > These things do get a fair amount of attention on PEN-L, but because they > are not explicitly stated as being about "shorter work hours", you don't > seem to credit those.. > -raghu. > > > > > >> Pen-l seems more interested in opining on the nice distinctions of policy >> on Syria, Turkey, Gaza, Israel, etc., without including much, if any, >> economic analysis. >> >> Gene >> >> >> > On Jan 9, 2016, at 10:27 AM, raghu <[email protected]> wrote: >> > >> > On Fri, Jan 8, 2016 at 4:21 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: >> > David W Terrell says: >> > >> > In place of Clinton’s 200 economists, who is it that Sanders listens >> to? He mentions several. Paul Krugman, he says, would make a good secretary >> of the Treasury. Krugman won a Nobel Prize in economics, teaches at >> Princeton and writes for The New York Times. Sanders uses the advice of >> Joseph Stiglitz, who also won a Nobel in economics, teaches at Columbia and >> writes the most lucid and compelling popular books on the economy one can >> find. >> > >> > Can't Bernie find some better economists? >> > >> > >> > Is there any concrete political or policy issue on which the advice of >> Paul Krugman or Joseph Stiglitz would differ materially from the advice of >> Michael Perelman? >> > >> > I can't think of any. >> > >> > That leaves us with the main complaint that PEN-L purists have with >> Krugman and Stiglitz: that they are not writing columns and giving speeches >> calling for the abolition of private property. >> > >> > Words and rhetoric in other words, not any concrete ideas or policy >> differences. >> > >> > -raghu. >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > pen-l mailing list >> > [email protected] >> > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >> >> _______________________________________________ >> pen-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >> > > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > >
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