And now for something completely different...

[--Pete]

Hi,

But, with more and more technology, efficiency, and automation, the society needs fewer and fewer workers.

Thank you. Exactly my point in rebutting your statement about having people work longer.

So perhaps we could rethink the nature of work to include something simple like, a four day, 30 hour work week, or additional vacation time per year.

In the early 70's, I worked for Western Electric (before the Ma Bell explosion). We had already gone to a 37.5 hour work-week and 35 was in sight. Of course, that was a protected industry, a 'natural monopoly' if you will. Then came Japan, competition, globalization, and engineers in New Delhi that would work 80 hour weeks for half of what we got.

So, if we want to compete with the French, we can take July and August off and work a twenty hour week. Our products and services would be so expensive that no one would want them. Pretty soon, we could be working a zero hour week -- as so many are already doing.

There is of course a limit to how efficient a system can get.

True, but that wall is still a long way off. Had commerce and industry modernized and automated at the full possible rate, the food and labor riots would have started a decade or more ago. As it is, objections by labor and incompetence by management has staved off the day.

--Pete