Global Campaign for the 4-hour Work Day

Finally, A Transition Plan towards a Resource Based Economy: The 4-Hour Work-day

When explaining what a Resource Based Economy is and how it would help society and the planet to live a better life, one of the most asked questions by the audience or public in general is the one about transition. If we manage to convince the audience that the Resource Based Economy model is the way to go, we will get questions like: “Ok, it sounds great but......how do we get there?” There is really not a clear answer for that question, but that could change soon if The Zeitgeist Movement embraces a plan that has been discussed by some economists and activists lately but has not become popular yet: The 4 hour work-day.

Carlos “Carlin” Tovar, a Peruvian architect, graphic designer and a renowned cartoonist, is proposing a reduction of working hours from 8 to 4 hours a day. In his book “21st Century's Manifesto” (available in Spanish only for now) he argues that machines and technology are supposed to liberate people from the amount of human labor they need to give in order to produce goods, but instead, the opposite is happening: People are now working more and more hours per day.

The first real solution for the economic crisis's worldwide, and the best transition plan to the near future Resource Based Economy that would solve humanities problems.

This is the link if you want to find out more and support it:
Global Campaign for the 4-hour Work Day

What do you guys think?


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To be blunt, no, a 4 hour work day would not work.

Machines currently would not be able to handle much of the wory beyond manufacturing.

Manufactuering goods is a small portion of the global economy, their is also intangible services that a robot would have difficulty facilitating.

You would besically have to revolutionize the enitre planet, both its infrastructure and mentality with regards to business.

I wish him luck!

As there are plenty of people struggling to survive on more than 8hr day wages. How can they survive on 4hr day wages.

Love the idea of more free time though.

Think Wal mart.

Think about how many managers a Wal Mart runs on a shift ( seems to me to be about 6 - 10 per shift )

Think employees per shift.

Now hire three times as many people as you employ right now ( six four hour shifts versus three eight hour shifts ) and start counting how many bodies you need just to function...

Oh, and since Wal Mart pays minimum wage to begin - now the majority of your staff is living on 1/2 of starvation wages.

And this isn't even addressing what people would do with that much more free time. Look how jacked up the world is even with the majority of us working 8+ hours per day.

~Heff

I think the assumption of the man leading this "revolution" is under the premise we would not have to work more because machines should be doing half the work.

Under his framework, we would work our regular jobs, with regular number of employees and be able to accomplsh all work in 4 hours with this assistance of some kind of technology.

I agree with you that this is a pipe dream and the reality of the matter is it would have to work better then originally described to prevent people from starving like you mentioned.

reply to post by MDDoxs


I agree with your thoughts that the article was dealing with mechanization. That is why I opted to discuss Wal Mart - as mechanizing service industry jobs, thus far, has not been successful on very many levels. Some industries will always need people to, ironically enough, end up serving as proxies between the industrial machine and other people.

~Heff

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by MDDoxs

 

I agree with your thoughts that the article was dealing with mechanization. That is why I opted to discuss Wal Mart - as mechanizing service industry jobs, thus far, has not been successful on very many levels. Some industries will always need people to, ironically enough, end up serving as proxies between the industrial machine and other people.

~Heff

Interesting assessment, if we are use this paradigm, i would theorize that the future class distinctions would be those who work and those who dont or those who own industry and those who are forced to be, as you suggested, a medium between the mechanized portion of industry and the end user.

Sounds like some crazy oligarchy to me

No thanks, I'm not working ten days a week just to get my 40 hours.

I would love to have a 4 hour work day if I still got paid the same as my 12 hour work day, working 12 hours a day sucks I have almost zero time for myself

Forget about wages for a second.

Work has been part of the human psyche for millenia. It's what has defined us. It shaped our world, our society, our basic structure.

To alter that intrinsic foundation would alter the way our society functions.

Originally posted by beezzer
Forget about wages for a second.

Work has been part of the human psyche for millenia. It's what has defined us. It shaped our world, our society, our basic structure.

To alter that intrinsic foundation would alter the way our society functions.

Could it not change for the better? or.......for the worse? As i suggested it would require a complete global transformation.

Perhaps our future is populated entirely by philosophers and scientists, where we do not need to work to sustain ourselves and everyone’s mind is unshackled and allowed to explore the realms of our reality.

Our skynet rises

Great find! I fully support this idea, it's my dream to work less it would give me more time to save the world

About Wall-Mart and other McJob's, what if people got paid with food to make up for the lost 4 hours of work, Every body needs to buy food, so if your meals for the week are given to you along with a paycheck think how much stress that would take of a family.

We are a long way from a RBE but if enough of us star talking about it and getting the masses informed we could make leaps in a few years.

Just my thoughts.

Originally posted by MDDoxs

Originally posted by beezzer
Forget about wages for a second.

Work has been part of the human psyche for millenia. It's what has defined us. It shaped our world, our society, our basic structure.

To alter that intrinsic foundation would alter the way our society functions.

Could it not change for the better? or.......for the worse? As i suggested it would require a complete global transformation.

Perhaps our future is populated entirely by philosophers and scientists, where we do not need to work to sustain ourselves and everyone’s mind is unshackled and allowed to explore the realms of our reality.

Our skynet rises

edit on 17-8-2012 by MDDoxs because: (no reason given)

True. It's why I said it would change, not sure whether it'd be for the better or worse. That's something for the future to decide.

reply to post by beezzer


My apologies i see what your saying, I read your post as if work is inherent to our nature and therefore we our selves would have to change. Technically that is true i guess.

Looks like i looking for a counter argument lol

Originally posted by beezzer
Forget about wages for a second.

Work has been part of the human psyche for millenia. It's what has defined us. It shaped our world, our society, our basic structure.

To alter that intrinsic foundation would alter the way our society functions.

And that is the point of this project, change for the better.

I'd rather see four 10-hour workdays and a three day weekend.

More productivity, more meaningful time off to spend with your family.

Just my opinion.

Originally posted by Dreine
I'd rather see four 10-hour workdays and a three day weekend.

More productivity, more meaningful time off to spend with your family.

Just my opinion.

Why not a four hour per day, if most things will be mechanized?