And you wonder why China is experiencing brain drain. Rest of world is moving toward 4-day work week and these guys think their citizens are dumb enough to slave away their lives.
https://www.npr.org/2023/11/08/1211632901/schools-across-the... ("Schools across the U.S. are trying a 4-day week. Why? To retain teachers") (My note: ~1000 US school districts have moved to a four day week, as they are unable to retain teachers otherwise)
https://www.abc15.com/news/national/4-day-workweeks-may-be-a... (“Nearly one-third (30%) of large US companies are exploring new work schedule shifts such as four-day or four-and-a-half-day workweeks, according to a KPMG survey of CEOs released this week.”)
In Europe I believe you can request an 80% work week, I've seen job posting and heard it second hand. Here's a Swiss example, https://threema.ch/en/jobs#openings of 80-100% jobs
In North America there were and are a number of companies that operate or operated (pre-layoffs etc, ZIRP free money RIP) on a 4 day work week. You can search "4 day companies" and you'll find a list. Some companies still operate on a 4 day week, so it wasn't necessarily a ZIRP-era only thing.
US congress or someone in government proposed a 32 hour work week -- unlikely to be passed of course or get any traction any time soon.
But in general, there's growing mainstream sentiment towards trying and exploring shorter work weeks.
If AI/AI-enabled-capitalists doesn't enslave us, those grandiose promised AI productivity gains may push sentiment further in that direction.
If anything - the US and, the majority of the world with it - has moved to longer work hours with fewer holidays. Sabbaticals are virtually unheard of anymore. Two people in the family work instead of one. I would argue the world is moving in the opposite direction.
It's an East Asian cultural thing to work super hard for some reason, same with Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. By "Rest of the world" you really just mean a handful of Western European nations with stagnant economies, but by god I do wish I could work less.
We've had 45 years of GDP increase not being reflected in wages, who cares if the economy is "stagnant" if the people making it happen aren't seeing the benefit.
Well, I can mostly speak to Japan, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was also true in China.
The long hours of Japanese work culture are true, but simultaneously, there's a lot of wasted time. Japan evens praises sleeping at the office, when you're clearly getting no work done.
This might be limited to white-collar office workers; no idea about people on the factory floor.
I don’t think people in East Asia work harder at all. It’s mostly sitting around and taking two hour lunches. I regularly worked 80-100 hours for most of my 20s and early 30s. It’s not sustainable at all and 95% of the population do not even have the physical and mental stamina to do it for more than a couple of weeks out of the year. Out of all the places I’ve experienced, East Coast (and particularly NYC) has the hardest working culture. It’s not even close.
Can you please elaborate on "downward pressure". Because the way I see it, 4day work week should actually increase the salaries, not reduce it. The way I see - if there is work for 3200 hrs. - it could either be done by one person in 80 weeks (current setup), OR 100 weeks in new setup. Assuming next that velocity should remain the same to keep competitiveness, it's gonna require you to hire not 0.25, but probably 0.5 person for one day free. Hence demand increase for employees. No?
Unions and labor regulations are important components of arriving at the desired outcome. You have to keep pulling the policy ratchets to reduce the work week and bolster worker protections, otherwise capitalism will extract until there is nothing left.
