[OT] Plato's Pub and Philosophical Society

[General Woundwort]

Were the Forums down Last night, or was it just my service provider?

Originally posted by dogscoff:
Surely you agree though that in a world where many / most people in employment are over-worked and work-related stress is reaching epidemic proportions, it makes sense to relieve that pressure by sharing the workload with the unemployed? Two birds with one stone...

No, I want people to either die of overwork or starvation, and decrease the surplus population. Unemployment and overwork are bad. Agreed. But, I have a philosophical problem with the idea that effective solutions to such problems can be "socially engineered" by government. And at least in America, a lot of the overwork (mind you, being in govt, I don't see a lot of it ) is out of personal or cultural expectation. "I want the corner office. I want a big raise. I want the fancy title stenciled on my door..." Ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

The French model may not be working yet, but given time employers will adjust to the fact that they need to take on extra staff to bring productivity back up to previous levels. This might be tough on them, but the economy will gradually change shape to fit the new dynamics and wage structures.

Like it is in France?

If nothing else, it's certainly a brave concept and attempt.

Wasn't it Orwell who said that socialism was a beautiful idea killed by ugly facts?