[Info-vax] HP stopping VMS paper documentation ?

[Kenneth Fairfield]

On Wednesday, December 21, 2011 6:39:11 AM UTC-8, Bob Koehler wrote:
> In article <21814600.1296.1324314895392.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums at prht13>, Kenneth Fairfield <ken.fa... at gmail.com> writes:
> > If you look at the current state of unemployment, you could make a rational=
> >  argument for *lowering* the retirement age, thus opening positions for the=
> >  younger demographic, particularly those just graduating from college that =
> > currently have a very high unemployment rate (plus the burden of huge stude=
> > nt loans...which are not dismissible in bankruptcy).
> 
>    Unions like to claim that they brought us the weekend.  Once upon a
>    time workers only got Sunday off, mostly because religion based laws 
>    were carried over from colonial days.
> 
>    But part of the reason most folks get Saturday off is that it was
>    seen by legislators as a way to cut unemployment.  Laws don't require
>    Saturday off, and most of the religion based Sunday laws have been
>    overturned, but there's a lot of legal pressure to run a 40 hour week
>    and a lot of benefit to a business to using the same 5 days as other 
>    businesses.
> 
>    So you can use a similar argument to claim Frdays off as a cure for
>    unemployment.

I don't think your analogy is very good: the 40 hour/5 day work week was largely on the moral argument that workers needed time to be with their families.  Prior to that, it was common to work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.  I don't believe there was an argument made that unemployment would be reduced if you shortened the work week (although economists may have been thinking that privately).

A better analogy that Friday's off would be to suggest shortening the work week still further, to 32 hours or something similar.  For that to work, wages would need to be increased while maintaining benefits, or you'll just have people working the 40 hours anyway.

But, yes, the idea a younger retirement age would be to reduce the workforce and therefore reduce the unemployment rate.  I don't think it's feasible to do that at this time, but that is the idea.

   -Ken

P.S. The unions *do* have a right to claim that they brought us the weekend *and* the 40 hour work week, as well as child labor laws and a minimum wage...as well as employer-provided health and retirement benefits.  They bought those things with their own blood.  If you think the vicious attacks by police on protestors in the middle east (and elsewhere) is brutal, look at the history of the labor movement this country...