Re: An Ancient Emptiness

Derek C. F. Pegritz — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 01:20:25 -0000

The whole concept of the "9-to-5" workday was a major aberration in the general pattern of labor. Consider Pittsburgh during the Carnegie/Frick Steel Era: the steel mills remained open 24/7, and the general shift length was something on the order of 12 to 15 hours - and overtime? What was that supposed to mean? You worked when you were needed and were glad to earn that extra cash!

I think the greatest aberration in labor was the invention of the salary. Fixed salaries are all well and good for CEOs and upper-level management types, but for average rank-and-file workers and the middle-management types who do the majority of the actual work? If you're making $60K per year on a salary no matter how much - or how little - you actually work, what is the reward or impetus to actually go above and beyond the call of duty to earn some welcome, extra $$$? Believe me, were I working a salaried job that paid me, say, $1000 per week whether I worked the expected 40 hours, or 60 hours, or even 80 hours, I would work exactly 40 hours and no more - because it's not like I'd be getting paid anything extra to work longer hours.

Re: An Ancient Emptiness

popejeremy — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 11:27:51 -0000

I would say that while 24 hour super-stores do make life more convinant nowadays, they're only neccesary for a workforce that has to work 24 hours a day. I don't think people actually *want* to be working those kinds of manic hours in the first place.

Is this an issue that can be solved by organizing labor? I don't know. The more I read and think about it, the more that it seems to me that the aberation is really the 1946-1969 period, when the U.S.A. was sucking on the sugar-tit of the spoils of World War II. I don't know if our economy can really support that kind of a lifestyle right now.

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Re: An Ancient Emptiness

Re: An Ancient Emptiness