[OccupyCU] Rohn Koester's suggestion

[Chris Goodrow]

I won't be able to make it tonight. Had an accident last week that totaled my car. Need to hopefully find a car this evening. Looking forward to reading how it went. 

Chris
(217) 898-5039

On Nov 1, 2012, at 7:38 PM, "Susan Parenti" <sparenti at illinois.edu> wrote:

> 
>> Susan, thank you so much for your messages about this -- I can't
>> attend the meeting tonight, but I have an idea I would like to pass
>> along.
>> 
>> I try to imagine the different world we would all be living in if the
>> prediction made in 1965 by a U.S. Senate subcommittee had come true:
>> that by the year 2000, the standard U.S. work week would be reduced to
>> 20 hours, due to efficiencies created through computerization and
>> automation. Certainly we've realized these efficiencies, but workers
>> in the U.S. are working longer hours than ever -- certainly longer
>> than any other post-industrial nation in the world.
>> 
>> Why is this? Okay, so a culture of market-driven material competition
>> would be expected to generate obsessive, irrational behaviors about
>> work, and just as clearly, overscheduling the employed class preempts
>> political activism. No doubt, many more reasons could be added to this
>> list. // Following the script of standard employment models, where
>> routines and relationships are ready-made, requires less
>> responsibility and courage than making free choices and dealing with
>> the consequences. Are we promoting the harder-but-richer path of
>> greater discretionary time, or are we using one economic crisis after
>> another to ensure that the same tired routines are reproduced?
>> 
>> A shorter work week would be an excellent Occupy-oriented argument and
>> would work alongside arguments against underemployment and
>> unemployment, and in favor of a living wage -- behind all these
>> arguments is the need for a fairer parsing of compensation for labor
>> and the time we dedicate to receive it. As a protest movement, a
>> reduced work week certainly has a policy dimension, with many
>> statistical analyses and anecdotes to support legislative reform. As a
>> political movement, though, it can also be practiced by anyone with a
>> full-time job, in which individuals make a commitment to take back 10
>> or 20 hours per week, either overtly (by promoting goal-driven
>> schedules over absolute schedules, say) or covertly (by being champion
>> slackers). I like both approaches.
>> 
>> Sorry again for not being at the meeting tonight -- I hope these ideas
>> feel worthwhile and welcome at the meeting.
>> 
>> Best Wishes,
>> Rohn
> 
> 
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