<story><title>Who Stole the Four-Hour Workday?</title><url>http://www.vice.com/read/who-stole-the-four-hour-workday-0000406-v21n8</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>spindritf</author><text>People who don&amp;#x27;t work at all. That&amp;#x27;s the choice (maybe more like outcome) the society went with. For what might the first time in history, the rich are working more than the poor[1] and labour participation rates are dropping[2].&lt;p&gt;In many ways this is a superior alternative. Children don&amp;#x27;t work. They used to. People spend a lot more time in school at the beginning of their life when it has the potential to have the biggest impact. It&amp;#x27;s not all bad. Although not quite living up to the dreams from 20th century either.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s also something to be said about positional goods. A lot of people are driven by status and they work to be ahead of others. Elizabeth Warren believes that this explains why, despite technological progress, regular middle class family needs two incomes where one was enough a couple decades ago[3], they&amp;#x27;re competing for the same house, or school district. It doesn&amp;#x27;t explain everything but it&amp;#x27;s a factor.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21600989-why-rich-now-have-less-leisure-poor-nice-work-if-you-can-get-out&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.economist.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;finance-and-economics&amp;#x2F;21600989...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http://equitablegrowth.org/2014/08/18/equitable-growth-make-confused-cyclical-recovery-monday-focus-august-18-2014/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;equitablegrowth.org&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;18&amp;#x2F;equitable-growth-make-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.com/The-Two-Income-Trap-Middle-Class-Parents/dp/0465090907&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;The-Two-Income-Trap-Middle-Class-Paren...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cousin_it</author><text>I think competition is the main villain here. Zero-sum games, prisoner&amp;#x27;s dilemmas, arms races and tragedies of the commons stole the four-hour workday from us, and many other good things besides. A nice toy example is &amp;quot;20% time&amp;quot; at companies like Google, which tends to evaporate as soon as your performance evaluation compared to your peers becomes tied to your performance at your main project.&lt;p&gt;The only solution to competition is centrally enforced precommitment. First, the government should actually enforce the eight-hour workday. Then it should reduce the workday, for all employers at once, so no one can get ahead by cheating. I don&amp;#x27;t see any other solution.</text></comment>
<story><title>Who Stole the Four-Hour Workday?</title><url>http://www.vice.com/read/who-stole-the-four-hour-workday-0000406-v21n8</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>spindritf</author><text>People who don&amp;#x27;t work at all. That&amp;#x27;s the choice (maybe more like outcome) the society went with. For what might the first time in history, the rich are working more than the poor[1] and labour participation rates are dropping[2].&lt;p&gt;In many ways this is a superior alternative. Children don&amp;#x27;t work. They used to. People spend a lot more time in school at the beginning of their life when it has the potential to have the biggest impact. It&amp;#x27;s not all bad. Although not quite living up to the dreams from 20th century either.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s also something to be said about positional goods. A lot of people are driven by status and they work to be ahead of others. Elizabeth Warren believes that this explains why, despite technological progress, regular middle class family needs two incomes where one was enough a couple decades ago[3], they&amp;#x27;re competing for the same house, or school district. It doesn&amp;#x27;t explain everything but it&amp;#x27;s a factor.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21600989-why-rich-now-have-less-leisure-poor-nice-work-if-you-can-get-out&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.economist.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;finance-and-economics&amp;#x2F;21600989...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http://equitablegrowth.org/2014/08/18/equitable-growth-make-confused-cyclical-recovery-monday-focus-august-18-2014/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;equitablegrowth.org&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;18&amp;#x2F;equitable-growth-make-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.com/The-Two-Income-Trap-Middle-Class-Parents/dp/0465090907&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;The-Two-Income-Trap-Middle-Class-Paren...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sp332</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s not that the current situation is really bad, but things seem to have stopped improving. Productivity keeps going up but wages don&amp;#x27;t.</text></comment>