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Came across an interesting idea today that would have some far-reaching implications, including reducing the unemployment rate heavily, and making the mindless bullshit jobs of our generation way more manageable for the employees.
Consider full time to be less than 40 hours (32, 30, whatever) and mandate legally that any amount over this is paid time and a half. Make it so if someone works more than 40 hours, they are paid double time. This is a far more benevolent system than any union negotiates for itself. It would force companies to make the most economically sound decision - which would be to hire more employees, and work them all less. You might say, "But won't they just reduce wages?" They might. But there's a lower limit to that, and time and a half and double time add up extremely quickly. It surprises me that our government hasn't done something like this already - but maybe that shouldn't surprise me. When I was young, I believed the government only existed as the result of a social contract, and for the benefit of its people. Turns out that's quite obviously not the case.
Basic Income is another solution, but I'm afraid we're never going to see that. Even if Bernie Sanders was elected president, I don't think we'd see it, or anything like it (and I don't think he will even make it onto the ticket, to be frankly honest with you - there's going to be hundreds of millions spent on smearing his name if he gets anywhere near it.) Basic Income is a possibility in a world where robotics and automation replace the vast majority of our jobs - and that world is, puportedly, coming very fast - but BI is only one possibility in that world. There's more dystopian ones as well, and given the track record of humanity, and in particular, the bourgeois classes, I feel those dystopias are far more likely.
To summarize, there's definitely solutions out there to this inequality of opportunity problem that don't completely topple the free, "not so free", market and piss off all the Milton Friedman/Ayn Rand coattail riding sheep. But it seems even those solutions can't find the necessary political will to be implemented. There's an endless sea of people in America, convinced that all forms of socialism and unionization are evil. These same people would refuse to accept the possibility that the Horatio Alger myth is called a myth for a reason, while they accept their paltry paychecks that barely make ends meet. Temporarily embarrassed millionaires, indeed.
Consider full time to be less than 40 hours (32, 30, whatever) and mandate legally that any amount over this is paid time and a half. Make it so if someone works more than 40 hours, they are paid double time. This is a far more benevolent system than any union negotiates for itself. It would force companies to make the most economically sound decision - which would be to hire more employees, and work them all less. You might say, "But won't they just reduce wages?" They might. But there's a lower limit to that, and time and a half and double time add up extremely quickly. It surprises me that our government hasn't done something like this already - but maybe that shouldn't surprise me. When I was young, I believed the government only existed as the result of a social contract, and for the benefit of its people. Turns out that's quite obviously not the case.
Basic Income is another solution, but I'm afraid we're never going to see that. Even if Bernie Sanders was elected president, I don't think we'd see it, or anything like it (and I don't think he will even make it onto the ticket, to be frankly honest with you - there's going to be hundreds of millions spent on smearing his name if he gets anywhere near it.) Basic Income is a possibility in a world where robotics and automation replace the vast majority of our jobs - and that world is, puportedly, coming very fast - but BI is only one possibility in that world. There's more dystopian ones as well, and given the track record of humanity, and in particular, the bourgeois classes, I feel those dystopias are far more likely.
To summarize, there's definitely solutions out there to this inequality of opportunity problem that don't completely topple the free, "not so free", market and piss off all the Milton Friedman/Ayn Rand coattail riding sheep. But it seems even those solutions can't find the necessary political will to be implemented. There's an endless sea of people in America, convinced that all forms of socialism and unionization are evil. These same people would refuse to accept the possibility that the Horatio Alger myth is called a myth for a reason, while they accept their paltry paychecks that barely make ends meet. Temporarily embarrassed millionaires, indeed.
