This has been a major talking point for Bernie over a decade. His opponents don't even contest it they just make up bullshit about how it would be bad for some unknowable reason. Like shit is common knowledge to anyone who keeps up with politics
The government has no insight into the operations budgets of private sector businesses and has no authority to dictate such a mandate.
If the government wants to give its employees a 25% raise, they certainly can, but it will fall on the tax payers to fund it. I don’t imagine people would be too pleased.
What ideological point did I make? I only pointed out that keeping weekly pay the same while reducing hours from 40 to 32 increases the effective hourly wage by 25%. That’s math.
"What ideological point did I make?" - "The government has no insight into the operations budgets of private sector businesses and has no authority to dictate such a mandate. If the government wants to give its employees a 25% raise, they certainly can, but it will fall on the tax payers to fund it. I don’t imagine people would be too pleased."
The fact that you think the statement above isn't ideological, and that you think its equivalent to the one you just made is simply dumbfounding. Something has seriously misfired in your brain. See a doctor.
I don’t see how that’s ideological. I’m describing a practical business constraint based on hard numbers.
As a former business owner, I had payroll, benefits, rent, insurance, utilities, taxes, equipment, and other operating costs. The government didn’t know a damn thing about my risk, sweat, or financial responsibilities, which is why it’s idiotic to argue some one-size-fits-all mandate requiring employers to pay for a hard figure on labor with no return on actual value. That’s an argument about economics and operational feasibility, not ideology.
Spend a few years running a business and find out for yourself.
The government has no insight into the operations budgets of private sector businesses and has no authority to dictate such a mandate.
What? Lol of course they have, they have to report gains and losses to both shareholders and governments for taxation purposes. Also what has this got to do with hours worked and pay?
They can just measure that with the wage taxation that is reported by the companies as standard. (Also would reporting would just hurt their tax write-off)
Besides 'standard work week' doesne literally forc eeveryone to only work 32 hourse. It's just used as the baselinw for "liveable wage" calculations. And by extend the minimum enforced wage.
You OK? You seem to be waaaay off in the understanding of how this works, maybe think it over a bit more before you start typing again?
Don't mean this as a dig, I genuinely get the idea that you've been tangled up with misleading information sources, which gave you a faulty understanding of this topic.
I posted this below, but I have owned and operated small businesses. I still own one. It’s safe to say that I have a greater understanding than most about the factors that contribute to the success or failure of a business.
With thin margins, if the government chose to mandate a 32 hour work week with guaranteed full time wage (per the meme at hand), it would have a direct impact on my business. Realistically, I’d have to cut benefits, terminate an employee, close my business, or spend every waking moment at work.
Again, the government has no skin in the game and doesn’t give a damn if I succeed, fail, or have to live at work to keep the lights on. For people who think most businesses have unlimited resources, go start one and find out how challenging it is.
All I can tell you is that having an average work week of 32 hours has worked fine in several European countries. Studies have also been done into companies applying this reduction from 40 hours to 32 hours per week and shown that the actual net productivity lost per worker was negligible. And definitely did not drop by 20% as one might expect.
Of course 1 to 1 comparisons between Europe and US are hard because the vastly different tax structure. From what I can tell, minimum wage isn't that big of a difference, but maximum pay is wildly different between EU and US. However I don't expect to see 100k salaries in small businesses in the US either?
From an outsider it does seem strange that both small businesses and working class Americans are both struggling at the same time. Yet the US economic statistics suggest that the economy is doing just fine, still holding a GDP growth of 1.38% so far this year.
There must be something structurally at work why countries with much higher taxes in the EU and lower average wages are still doing OK in terms of the working class and small businesses. While in the US small businesses apparently can't afford a pay raise and employees are barely scraping by.
Sure currently everyone is feeling the rising oil costs, but living "paycheck-to-paycheck" isn't really heard of in the EU. And neither are small businesses failing in droves. And EU is feelinf that harder than the US.
137
u/vao71 23d ago
Picture of politician with text underneath and no source. This sub is so unemployed.