[General Woundwort]

[quote]Originally posted by dogscoff:

Basically, it comes down to the way in which the time-saving benefits of labour saving technology are used to benefit the upper levels of an organisation rather than the lower levels: If a company employs 2 ppl doing the same job, and then a gizmo is invented that means the job can be done in half the time, does the company halve both their hours or lay one of them off?

In France they've passed a law where you're not allowed to work more than X hours a week. I think X is about 35 or 40. This is a cool idea- it caused some problems while people adapted but hopefully it will reduce unemployment and improve standards of living. I think the whole world should be heading this way.

Yes, and France thereby gets the worst of both possible worlds - high unemployment and declining productivity. If you're going to have a massive welfare state, you must have a large pool of labor and capital to support all those who don't/cant work. And if your workers are limited by law as to how long they can work, you are capping potential production (and thereby potential new jobs and tax revenue) by default. The French model just isn't working. But they've had it so long that when they try to scale it back, they get strikes (even "strikes" by college students - college students).