21 Hour Workweek: A Happier, Healthier, and Heartier America
James Dugan
Jeff AttawayWhat would you do with an extra 19 hours a week? I think I would go fishing more, read more books and of course, finally write my novel. We can all dream of the 21 Hour Workweek, but the reality is that there are many reasons that this reverie should happen. In reality, the country is down to 33 hours. Since the 2008 Recession and the plummeting of our home values, America is rethinking their working lives and the 40-hour grind is being challenged to better improve our environment, family lives, and fiscal futures.
Each day we are Losing the Middle Class. Families are living with tighter budgets and stashing away money for the inevitable pink slip of our future. The idea of job security and the benefit of free employee healthcare seem to be as antiquated as the VCR and the family station wagon. But instead of falling into depression, America is learning to refuse higher prices, invigorating community options, and living happily with less. The 21-hour workweek is a reality we should consider, at least for one person in a marriage. It will be the first step to managing on a single income and preparing for any budgetary restrictions in the future.
The 21-hour workweek will improve our environment. The amount of fossil fuels spinning our economic engine would be cut in half. Would we still use our computers, heat and lights in our homes? Perhaps, but most businesses do not have natural light like our homes. We would have more time and people to meet and that would certainly heat it. There would be more time and energy for community events and volunteer activities that the 40-hour week drains. We could cut down traffic jams with staggered starting times and use more time for smarter food choices. There is a plethora of energy saving options if we decide that a 21-hour workweek is viable.
Our family lives would improve with more time for education, exercise, and communication. We would learn more house improvements and have more time for family activities. Meal times would include at least a lunch or breakfast and the stress from always being on the go would be relieved. Time would not be a luxury but an expectation with enrichment activities such as higher education, reading, and time for the extended family becoming a daily possibility.
Unless the Federal government doubles the hourly rate and everyone on salary stays at its current rate, financial hardships could exacerbate and taxes, thus services, could deride our standard of living. Some have already learned to live within this range, and tough choices of housing and life styles must be addressed. But over time, the economy will react to slimmer margins and prices and services will respond even without government intervention. We could live in smaller houses and use one car. We could have less cell phones and one computer. The ideal of retirement will be altered and the financial worry of the future can be eliminated. A 21-hour workweek does not necessarily mean smaller revenue. We would be more efficient with work and the best benefit would be less waste.
The article, Where the 40 Hour Work Week Started, is a fascinating read about how time and labor created this 40 hour standard almost 80 years ago. It also supports the idea for a shorter workweek with modern time. Our workweek was created before computers and because of the torturous 60-hour week of the industrial revolution. We can be smarter as a nation with our resources and time. We can improve our infrastructure with less the amount of daily commuters. We can improve the quality of leisure and sleep that will make us healthier. The depression from stress would decrease as we have more time to improve. The cliché may finally be true: “Work smarter and not harder.”
Why do we work five days a week or 8 eight hours a day? The global economy is raising the cost of living because of the labor and energy demands. We need to make choices now that will improve the economy, get people to work, educate our work force, and sustain our quality of living. A 21-hour work will do all these things and make our family lives better. We might not have to live up to our parents' standard of living and salaries to be middle class, maybe we should stop talking about salary as any requirement for happiness. Maybe we could now create the content class who fishes, reads and finishes his novel with plenty of time left over for work.
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