Does anyone else find it amusing that despite the unprecedented, game-changing technological advances of the past half century and the mass entry of women into the workforce, we're still chained to this absurd notion of a 40 hour workweek? It makes no fucking sense. We could enjoy the same standard of living we do now working ten hours a week, twenty at most. Fucking hunter-gatherers work less than the modern American. It's a cruel joke, all perpetuated in the name of growing GDP instead of improving the lives of citizens.
For example, instead of granting new mothers extended maternity leave followed by reduced hours, we encourage them to throw their babies into childcare centers. Why? In this case, not only can the mother continue to work, but then you've created a new industry and new jobs that "grow the economy" (because that is literally the only measure the government gives a fuck about). So this shitty social policy increases GDP at the expense of severing the natural, millenia-old practice of mothers nurturing their children. This of course has negative repercussions that we are just beginning to understand, ranging from increased stress and health problems on both mother and child, the growing impossibility of breast feeding for many working women (which negatively impacts the child as they are forced to rely on unnatural baby formulas), and a general breakdown of the mother/child bond that is vital for proper psychological development.
But it's all good because we can add more $$$$s to the economic data.
ok obi