Kellogg's Six-Hour Work Day

Robert Whaples, "Review of Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt, Kellogg's Six-Hour Day." EH.Net Economic History Services, Sep 11 1998. URL: http://eh.net/bookreviews/library/0115

March 2010, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Economic News Release
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm

Study Shows Six-Hour Workday to be Optimal
Although a recent Australian study suggests long workdays threaten employees' well-being, personal ambitions and workplace competition among American workers make a shortened workday unlikely in the United States.
By Barbara Worthington
http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=6631237

She (Dr. Caroline West of Sydney University) says nearly one-third of Australian full-time workers work more than 48 hours a week and 30 percent work 50 or more hours.

"It's going to require a lot of structural reform, but I think the time is ripe for addressing it as an issue,'' West says of the proposed six-hour workday. "I don't see any reason why it can't realistically happen."

While it may or may not be realistic for Australia, such a workplace trend is unlikely to take hold in the United States. "We tend to work more hours than a lot of the industrialized world," says Terry Beehr, professor of organizational psychology at Mount Pleasant, Mich.'s Central Michigan University. "I don't see any trend going away from that."

Whats wrong with a 30-hour work week?
By Don Fitz
May 30, 2009 -- With millions of jobs lost during the first part of 2009, who is calling for a shorter work week to spread the work around? Not the Republicans. Not even the Democrats. But why is there nary a peep from unions?
http://links.org.au/node/1077

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• Six-Hour
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• unemployment
• labor

[RuudVanDrijver]

How about a new 8 day week? We'd work Monday to Friday and a weekend of Saturday, Sunday and Funday?

I remember when I was a kid, being told that due to automisiation and computers, we'd all be living a life of leisure with machines taking all the drudgery out of life. In effect what has actually happened is that this technology has made a very few people immensely rich by putting millions out of work with no compensation. Greed is the enemy of man I'm afraid.

[zthustra]

@RuudVanDrijver

I have designed a calendar with a 6-day week and a 12-day super week. Twelve is a beatuiful number in it's division to 12, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1. It is a shame we didn't evolve a base-twelve counting system instead of base-ten.

Seven is such an ugly and useless number but it is essential for all those religions with weekly holy days. Nobody plans their life or business around lunar cycles any more and our calendar shouldn't either.

[VolcanicPenguin]

Great vid! This is exactly what we need to do, shorten the work week! Everyone wins, except maybe the top ten percent.

I'm glad to see you've got a clear view of the topic! :)

[dovad16]

Good video. Alas, some of the unemployed are unemployable either because they are too stupid to hire, have criminal records, or poor job references that follow them around. So...there will always be some unemployed because no one in their right mind would hire them.

[carefulcarpenter]

All is possible for the enlightened individual. Thanks for demonstrating how it could work for all. The biggest hurdle that I see is the side effects of the "disease" so many carry--ENVY. Rather than make it work for themselves, people spend far too much time comparing what they have to what their neighbor has.

"A wise handyman knows that the wealthier one is the more burdened one is. Let me serve those who have enough, and appreciate life."

~~carefulcarpenter

[ancienthebreworg]

Fascinating video Z, your statistics are profound. Makes me wonder why all these high priced politicians never did what you did, well maybe they did, but just don't want us to know the statistics :-)

[renegade4dio]

Finally, it absolutely astounds me that the wealthy seem to be unable to see the long term implications of the policies that are making them wealthy at the expense of everyone else, that these policies will eventually destroy the society that they depend upon for their wealth.

[renegade4dio]

Secondly, while this situation is great for the top earners in the short term, it's unsustainable. The economy is primarily driven by consumer spending, and as fewer and fewer consumers have money to spend, the economy will continue to falter and eventually crumble, taking everyone including the rich down with it. The rich benefit greatly from society. They can only become that rich on the backs of others. It's impossible for one man to truly do millions of dollars worth of work in a year.

[renegade4dio]

I put in 45-50 h/wk at my primary job, and an additional 10-20 h/wk at my second job, and between the two jobs, I still make less than 1/2 of the "average" /wk that you calculated. I don't really mind putting in so many hours, but I do wish that all that time could net me more than just barely enough to keep the creditors at bay each month. My belief is that US policy over the last 30 years did exactly what the wealthy wanted: make the middle class poor and pliant by creating a labor surplus.

[AncientAtheist]

Kind of counter-intuitive. You're saying, "be fair, work less" when you'd think it's "be fair, work more". But, yeah, I hear you.