[Peace-discuss] Rohn Koester's suggestion

[Susan Parenti]

> 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