Thirty-Hour
Work Force
Charlie Earl
As the
European economic experiment slowly slides into quicksand, the economic gurus
of the United States are hustling to keep pace. In addition to unsustainable
pension plans the EU workforce has enjoyed the short-term benefits of shorter
work weeks (35 hours in some countries) and extended vacations. Not surprisingly
productivity has declined while government costs have accelerated. France is
attempting to restore some sanity to the issue, but workers are virulently pushing
back.
Meanwhile in
the United States the shorter work-week model is being advanced through
implementation of the Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). Stringent and costly requirements
for employers in the field of healthcare have resulted in many small businesses
reducing the hours of their employees in order to escape punitive government
rules. When many of our government leaders seem to covet Europe’s socialist
trend, it makes it difficult to determine if they foresaw the reduced work week
as a logical consequence of their passing Obamacare without “knowing what’s in
it.” Admittedly as one who is not impressed by the mental agility of our elite
overseer class, I might assume that they were blindly unaware of the results of
their manipulating more than one-sixth of our national economy. My distrust of
their agendas, however, makes me suspect that they saw an opportunity for
implementing the Euro-socialist plan via the back door. The back door and the
trap door are the favorite entry points for those who desire to control us.
Added to the
inevitable reduction in hours for many workers because of Obamacare
restrictions and regulations is the President’s call for a 24% increase in the
federal minimum wage. This is another maneuver that jump starts my paranoia.
While many would assume that GOP lawmakers will not accede to Obama’s
request/demand, I expect an argument will be advanced citing reduced hours as a
justification for a higher hourly wage. They create the problem with insane lawmaking
then browbeat a few compliant GOP softies into going along with the rate
increase. Many union contracts are tethered to the minimum wage so those would
automatically increase thus putting more pressure on private and public sector
employers. In addition the unions could solidify their membership with the
higher wages and have more dollars to contribute to the Democrats and their
socialist agenda. Boehner’s and the GOP House’s failures to repeal or defund
Obamacare will result in a series of inter-related body blows to our economy. Our
nation will stagger closer to European socialism, the unions and Democrats will
be victorious and the weak-willed, dull-minded GOP will get the blame.
Every
unchallenged progressive initiative and every overreaching but compromised
progressive proposal leads to less liberty and more tyranny. Every law, rule or
regulation generates a cascading series of effects that impacts all of us. As
difficult as it may be to admit, pork barrel spending may be the least onerous
of government action. Other than its redistributing taxpayer’s wealth from one
district to another, the residual effects of building a local post office,
monument or museum are less dangerous than most any other type of legislative
or bureaucratic action. There are some political observers who believe
provisions or laws should always contain a sunset date. It may slow the march,
but it will not halt it because of the ancillary effects of any given
legislative enactment. The “host” may be forced to die, but the “parasites”
will continue to thrive. Or…. the host will be renewed or strengthened to
protect the parasitic outgrowths from the original endeavor. The legislation
passed by our political masters is similar to an octopus because the tentacles
reach across the regulatory spectrum into other seemingly unrelated areas.
The remedy
is self-evident. We should capitalize on our new thirty-hour work weeks by
using our extended off time to dismantle the federal monster, remove its
nefarious influence from our respective states and get on with our lives.
Perhaps our freedom from working will allow our Framers’ dream for liberty to
actually work. Of course… when the government figures that we may have time for
disrupting their plans, they may require that we perform 40 hours per week of
“community service.”
Charlie Earl
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