Top German politician warns against adopting a 4-day workweek: ‘Never in history has a society increased its prosperity by working less’
November 27, 2023
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP – Free Democratic Party) has voiced opposition to the idea of a four-day work week without a corresponding reduction in wages, despite a survey showing that 73% of Germans support the idea.
Giving people more time to do things they consider important may very well increase prosperity of a society. Also, I don’t like the idea that only your job is work. Online shitposting is also work, it is basically politics. Not to mention if you have hobbies like doing some kind of scientific research, developing a video game in your free time, growing food etc. Perhaps it’s less efficient than what companies do, however lets not forget that many top companies started in a garage.
LOL, the proof is irrefutable, he is wrong.
Never in history has Lindner said something that didn’t automatically make me roll my eyes.
Absolutely agree, we need to work 7 days a week 12 hr shifts to increase prosperity.
“5-day work week? Blasphemy, who will man the factories?”
Ok, but seriously how do we find how much work is the optimal/most efficient amount? A lot of people would probably support 3-day work week. Support != best for society. Not saying 4-day work week is a bad idea though
Yes but they now have more time to spend money no? So they need more money , so those 4 days will become more productive, idk, there is pretty good arguments for it, also if you need more work u can get part time , so there is more opportunity for the newer generation of the workforce to get a job and make it wasier to get a job…etc , i would love to hear some arguments against it
Another utter moron that shouldn’t be anywhere near the file he’s somehow been made the minister of.
Talking none-sense while trying to parrot a corporate bullshit line… nobody actually needs the picture or some text to already know who said it just by that headline.
In Berlin everyone calls in sick so no difference
Technology advances with everyone’s effort, yet the benefits seem to favor a select few.
Yes but in “history” it took 1 month to plow a field, today it takes 1 day. This reasoning only works if a work has been done the very same way from today since ever.
How the fuck can anybody actually think that is party know anything about economics?!
Exactly what i expect from FDP (fick den pöbel(fuck the plebs))
Excuse me? Do these people think we’ve forgotten the 1800s?
Of course the FDP hates it lmao
Just about every aspect is improved in the 4-day work week.
The Grand Nagus Lindner has spoken. Please, disperse peacefully.
Except for the time we went to a 5 day work week?
>The billionaire founder of Infosys and one of India’s wealthiest businessmen, Narayana Murthy, recently urged employees to give 70 hours of their time a week to their employer as a patriotic duty to the nation.
The billionaire should give 99% of his wealth to the country as an act of patriotism.
Reminder that the 5 days 8 hours system was adopted in the early 20th century.
You’re working the same hours as a factory worker in the interwar period with all the advancements and automation we developed over the past 100+ years.
If by “prosperity” is making rich richer, then he is right, we must do more for our slavemasters
I knew it would be Lindner without even opening the post
The point of technology is to work less. We process and store large amounts of supplies, so we have time to do something else (probably also more worthwhile). The only persons who don’t approve of less labor are those exploiting labor, because of obvious conflict of interests.
Yeah, working yourself into the grave is better, amirite?
700€ sounds good?
I agree. The abolition of slavery and child labour has been a disaster for the human race. Work harder, not smarter.
OMG, YES it has. It happens all the time. Not too long ago it was quite normal to work on Saturdays, and not too long ago it was normal to work 10 hours a day, yet we have all become more wealthy and live longer despite working less hours than our grandparents because we are much more productive thanks to new technology. It is only natural to think of ways to make us even more productive and working less and enjoying life more.
I see Lindner is trying to beat his previous record for “How factually wrong can you be?”
P.S: Post-industrialist increases in efficiency and productivity have almost always been accompanied by people working less. That’s why we’re working 8 hours and 5 days per week instead of 9+ hours per day and 6 days per week. And experiments indicated that for creative work a reduction to a 4 day workweek would lead to more hours where work is actually done efficiently.
29 comments
Giving people more time to do things they consider important may very well increase prosperity of a society. Also, I don’t like the idea that only your job is work. Online shitposting is also work, it is basically politics. Not to mention if you have hobbies like doing some kind of scientific research, developing a video game in your free time, growing food etc. Perhaps it’s less efficient than what companies do, however lets not forget that many top companies started in a garage.
LOL, the proof is irrefutable, he is wrong.
Never in history has Lindner said something that didn’t automatically make me roll my eyes.
Absolutely agree, we need to work 7 days a week 12 hr shifts to increase prosperity.
“5-day work week? Blasphemy, who will man the factories?”
Ok, but seriously how do we find how much work is the optimal/most efficient amount? A lot of people would probably support 3-day work week. Support != best for society. Not saying 4-day work week is a bad idea though
Yes but they now have more time to spend money no? So they need more money , so those 4 days will become more productive, idk, there is pretty good arguments for it, also if you need more work u can get part time , so there is more opportunity for the newer generation of the workforce to get a job and make it wasier to get a job…etc , i would love to hear some arguments against it
[https://assets.ourworldindata.org/grapher/exports/annual-working-hours-per-worker.svg](https://assets.ourworldindata.org/grapher/exports/annual-working-hours-per-worker.svg)
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yeah..
Another utter moron that shouldn’t be anywhere near the file he’s somehow been made the minister of.
Talking none-sense while trying to parrot a corporate bullshit line… nobody actually needs the picture or some text to already know who said it just by that headline.
In Berlin everyone calls in sick so no difference
Technology advances with everyone’s effort, yet the benefits seem to favor a select few.
Yes but in “history” it took 1 month to plow a field, today it takes 1 day. This reasoning only works if a work has been done the very same way from today since ever.
How the fuck can anybody actually think that is party know anything about economics?!
Exactly what i expect from FDP (fick den pöbel(fuck the plebs))
Excuse me? Do these people think we’ve forgotten the 1800s?
Of course the FDP hates it lmao
Just about every aspect is improved in the 4-day work week.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/02/24/worlds-biggest-4-day-workweek-experiment-shows-big-health-benefits.html
The Grand Nagus Lindner has spoken. Please, disperse peacefully.
Except for the time we went to a 5 day work week?
>The billionaire founder of Infosys and one of India’s wealthiest businessmen, Narayana Murthy, recently urged employees to give 70 hours of their time a week to their employer as a patriotic duty to the nation.
The billionaire should give 99% of his wealth to the country as an act of patriotism.
Reminder that the 5 days 8 hours system was adopted in the early 20th century.
You’re working the same hours as a factory worker in the interwar period with all the advancements and automation we developed over the past 100+ years.
If by “prosperity” is making rich richer, then he is right, we must do more for our slavemasters
I knew it would be Lindner without even opening the post
The point of technology is to work less. We process and store large amounts of supplies, so we have time to do something else (probably also more worthwhile). The only persons who don’t approve of less labor are those exploiting labor, because of obvious conflict of interests.
Yeah, working yourself into the grave is better, amirite?
700€ sounds good?
I agree. The abolition of slavery and child labour has been a disaster for the human race. Work harder, not smarter.
OMG, YES it has. It happens all the time. Not too long ago it was quite normal to work on Saturdays, and not too long ago it was normal to work 10 hours a day, yet we have all become more wealthy and live longer despite working less hours than our grandparents because we are much more productive thanks to new technology. It is only natural to think of ways to make us even more productive and working less and enjoying life more.
I see Lindner is trying to beat his previous record for “How factually wrong can you be?”
P.S: Post-industrialist increases in efficiency and productivity have almost always been accompanied by people working less. That’s why we’re working 8 hours and 5 days per week instead of 9+ hours per day and 6 days per week. And experiments indicated that for creative work a reduction to a 4 day workweek would lead to more hours where work is actually done efficiently.