Conrad Schmidt

I would like to give this book a good review because I think it's a well researched thoughtful work though I disagree with some of it. The whole premise lies in the proposition that by working a reduced hour workweek we will therefor reduce production of non-essential goods and services which will in turn lessen the impact on the environment and additionally give us personal quality time to invest in other valuable family and community building pastimes.
I don't think the argument is completely convincing. I do believe that the workweek will HAVE to be reduced because free trade agreements are fascilitating the transfer of work from Canada to third world countries in combination with increased technology that also reduces the number of workers needed. Foreign investors are also reeping the profits of business in Canada and funnelling the profits to their home countries. This profit is not being reinvested in Canada. Taxes that should be paid to the Canadian government are being evaded by clever strategies. This reduces the amount that can be spent on essential and social services. Corporations are polluting the environment and using Chapter 11 to plead profit loss when they are asked to conform to environmental regulations. This reduces our power in enforcing environmental standards.
I don't however believe that simply reducing the workweek is a solution in itself. The author believes that by reducing the innessential goods and services in our personal lives, giving up cars, restaurants, televisions and the latest gimmicks etc that we can afford to work less and live on a reduced income. This may well be true if your in a middle to upper income bracket. There is a lot of disposable income that can adjusted. However in the low income bracket there is little to no disposable income to play with. Let's use a hypothetical example. A single parent with 2 children working for minumum wage. This parent must pay child care expenses, rent, food, utilities, school fees as well as other educational expenses, bus passes, and clothing. To have a rounded childhood fees for participation in sports and cultural events must also be considered. Working at a minimum wage job there is not enough money to accommodate all of these expenses so food and clothing is often the first to be cut out of the budget because there is nothing else to cut. We already have a huge child poverty problem in this country. Reducing the workweek and hence reducing wages at this level of income is impossible without losing housing or starving.
I will use myself as another example. I live on a fixed income. I do not own a car, I have walked everywhere for approximately 18 years. If I had to travel a significant distance I used public transport. I have recently had a severe decline in my health (arthritic knees, compressed spinal discs, severely injured ankle) and now I MUST use public transit. I have had an old television from the 60s in my closet all these years that I use with rabbit ears when there is a major disaster that I must find out about. I have used it three times in the last several years. I have NO IDEA what people see in television. I prepare our meals from scratch, I have always made it a policy to refuse to buy boxed or canned goods with the exception of canned fish. We eat fruits, vegetables, rice, potatoes, bread, and chicken. Sometimes I am lucky to purchase salmon in the summer from First Nations friends. Practically everything in my house was purchased or found used goods. I buy 99.9% of my clothes at thrift stores. I have eaten on two occassion in restaurants, on Commercial Drive which is my neighbourhood, in the last 20 years. I live in co-op housing, I buy at the co-op bookstore (if I can't find the book at the library, second hand, or by trading), I shop at the food co-op for a lot of items. If I must shop elsewhere for food I make sure I shop Canadian in local stores. I refuse to buy fruits that are grown outside of BC if I can buy local fruits for my family because I want to support local farmers. The only exception I make to this is fruit which cannot be purchased here. I personally am allergic to all fruit except bananas so I do buy those or else I wouldn't ever have a fruit. I take all the recyclable drink containers to the bottle depot or leave them out in the lane for other people to take. There is really nothing that I can reduce as I am living at the bare minimum now. My income is just over that of minimum wage and I have 2 other people to take care of. Sometimes when there is an extra need such as school fees or prescription drugs we must reduce our food intake to compensate for this extra expense. If there were a reduction in my monthly living allowance I would be onto the street without anywhere to live. There is virtually NOTHING to adjust.
Also I think it is unrealistic to expect everyone to give up cars. Many people live in rural areas where there is virtually no public transporation. There are also disabled and elderly people that cannot use public transport. For those who could use public transport there would have to be a major improvement in this service to entice people to use it. I rarely get a seat on a bus and have to stand with my bad knees and ankle on practically every trip. People are always packed into buses like sardines. We need many many more buses and we need them on more streets.
I think the immediate solution is improved bus service, bike and handicapped scooter lanes on every
street, subsidies to those who will purchase smart cars, and car sharing groups. We should make it so economically attractive to purchase smart cars that it will be a great incentive to buy them. Car sharing groups can purchase smart cars with extra goverment subsidies (because they are a sharing group) and people can pay per use with a set number of days maximun allowable per month.
We must discourage big box stores from entering the city and bringing more unwanted traffic and we must encourage small local business. We must stop the proposed new bridge into Vancouver from being built.
I also don't really believe that the author's premise of working less hours will create jobs for more people. First of all I doubt that business will reduce their output but instead produce at the same rate and hire more people to fill the same number of hours. Working reduced hours will also create an atmosphere of part time work that will reduce benefits and break unions. Low income workers would have to work two 6 hour jobs instead of one 8 hour job further increasing unemployment. If businesses were somehow convinced to produce less and by working less hours consumers were purchasing less then there would be further considerable job losses. I also don't believe that the actual statistics of unemployment are accurate. There are many factors that are not considered when those statistics are created. In actual fact there are many many more unemployed than the stats present. This scenario of working less I believe would create mass unemployment in low income circles. I do think it will eventually happen, but not by choice and I think a lot of people are going to suffer and possibly die as a result of it. I believe crime rates will skyrocket and suicides will increase.
The only possibility I see in reducing the workweek is to also raise minimum wage to compensate and at the same time freeze rents and prices. There is no other way this can work in this income bracket. Historically every time minimum wage is increased the price of everything increases to compensate and there is no actual gain for the workers.
Overall, I think this is a book that everyone should read but at the same time I don't think it is the complete solution. We need to produce and use green technology, increase minumum wage, provide an affordable education, increase public assistance, provide subsidy to those who use green technology, limit or freeze the population of our cities, provide better public transport, accommodate bikeriding and walking, provide effective counselling and addiction services, build more co-operative housing, back out of the NAFTA free trade agreement, and many many more things. It is so overwhelming and must be considered as a complete package.… (lisätietoja)