"In theory, theory and practice are identical. In practice, they're not."
A fair portion of the Western world's underemployment and unemployment problem derives directly from the overemployment of those who have the jobs. As people keep putting it, "Whatever happened to the 40-hour workweek?"
For example, among those sedentary professionals who can keep working for decades upon decades, most in the United States are classified as Fair Labor Standards Act exempt, and are therefore often made to work overtime. Health insurance is a fixed cost that needs to be driven down both through socializing medicine and, preferably, through requiring per-hour National Insurance taxes, but only the latter action would actually change the fact that firms find it cheaper to hire two professionals working 60 hours/week each than to hire three professionals for normal 40-hour workweeks.
And, here's the trick, neither of those two professionals actually receives overtime pay. The company is literally getting a 1/3 boost to their productivity-per-employee solely by using a legal loophole to not pay for all hours worked. This is not the lump-of-labor fallacy, it's straightforward exploitation.
To paraphrase many Hacker News-targeted blogposts, "Fuck companies, pay workers."
A fair portion of the Western world's underemployment and unemployment problem derives directly from the overemployment of those who have the jobs. As people keep putting it, "Whatever happened to the 40-hour workweek?"
For example, among those sedentary professionals who can keep working for decades upon decades, most in the United States are classified as Fair Labor Standards Act exempt, and are therefore often made to work overtime. Health insurance is a fixed cost that needs to be driven down both through socializing medicine and, preferably, through requiring per-hour National Insurance taxes, but only the latter action would actually change the fact that firms find it cheaper to hire two professionals working 60 hours/week each than to hire three professionals for normal 40-hour workweeks.
And, here's the trick, neither of those two professionals actually receives overtime pay. The company is literally getting a 1/3 boost to their productivity-per-employee solely by using a legal loophole to not pay for all hours worked. This is not the lump-of-labor fallacy, it's straightforward exploitation.
To paraphrase many Hacker News-targeted blogposts, "Fuck companies, pay workers."