workers of the world...relax

[joanna bujes]

At 02:22 PM 09/30/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>It's a real puzzle why the demand for a shorter work week has not caught on
>here in the US, particularly because ir has been successful in France and
>Germany, It;s worth noting that the European social democracies average
>about 6 weeks of paid vacation a year, mandated by law. Yet in the US work
>hours have been steadily rising, while wages have been falling since '73,
>except for a period in the 90s, when they ticked up on the bubble. The
>downward trend has now resumed, isn't that right, Doug? In my grim, dour,
>Puritan way, I think people do need negative incentives like the threat of
>bankruptcy and lost profits, and indeed lawsuits, to keep their mind on
>their work, as well as positive incentives like profits, which many of you
>regard as even worse than the negative ones. But I think we could do with a
>3-4 day work week, or a five-six hr workday. German and freench workers have
>hammered their workweeks down to 35 and 39 hrs respectively. Why not us?

1) Because there's no large, organized labor movement?

2) Because we're all "individuals" and feel that this "individualism" is 
threatened when we get together to fight for a common cause?

3) Because mindless overwork is easier than facing the "void"?

Joanna