Bernie Sanders calls for four-day, 32-hour work week in US – here’s how it would work

I’m like to cringe in horror if I – from the comfort of my living room, with its log-fed fire and close proximity to a coffee pot – look back at generations past and the sort of work conditions they were exposed to.

These days, the majority of us have it better than 99 percent of the people who came before us where making money is concerned. Offices have in many cases shifted to our homes, there are strict rules about how many hours you can be forced to work (and in what conditions), and you can, more or less, quit your job on the spot if you ever feel like its contributing to unhappiness.

A time traveler from, say, the 1700s might ask themselves just how it could get any better?

Enter the concept of a four-day working week.

The idea has been bandied about for a few years now, and focuses on the notion that most modern day jobs would be better served by people who were required to work less hours per week.

Proponents say workers would be better energized, less susceptible to burnout, and therefore more focused and productive during those hours they do work.

It’s a complicated matter, I think we can all agree, and one that would promise a grand amount of change to human society if it were implemented. Yet there are individuals talking about it in the highest reaches of society; those with the potential to really make a dent in the perception of business owners and firm operators who are more inclined to see a four-day working week as a way of losing man-power and money.

One such advocate is Bernie Sanders, who proposed that the rise of AI and its limitless productivity should be used to reduce the traditional workweek.

The veteran politician said during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast earlier this year: “You’re a worker, your productivity is increasing because we give you AI, right? Instead of throwing you out on the street, I’m going to reduce your workweek to 32 hours.”

And Sanders’ vision goes beyond mere talk. It includes the prospect of the “Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act,” which he first introduced last year.

The bill would essentially require all employers to pay overtime for any hours worked beyond a 32-hour workweek, prompting a shift toward a four-day workweek.

“Let’s use technology to benefit workers,” Sanders said. “That means, give you more time with your family, with your friends, for education, whatever the hell you want to do. You don’t have to work 40 hours a week anymore.”

Sanders’ aim is to roll out the concept of a 32-hour work week over the course of four years, thus giving businesses time to adapt without immediately threatening their cash flow.

Yet it isn’t all sunshine and roses where AI is concerned, according to Sanders. The 84-year-old has stated his belief that full-scale implementation of AI could increase the divide between wealth and poverty.

“Today, before we have seen the full implications of robotics and AI, you’re looking at unprecedented wealth and income concentration,” Sanders told NBC News last month. “The top 1% of Americans own more wealth than the bottom 93%.”

“All of these zillionaires — the Musks, the Ellisons, the Bezoses, the Zuckerbergs — are investing hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars into AI and robotics. What is the result of all that?”

With AI giving tech moguls the ability to accrue even more wealth, Sanders believes equality and democracy might be at stake.

“It will mean even more wealth and even more political power for these guys at the top, while our democracy gets weaker and weaker,” he said. “Working people will see a significant decline in their standard of living unless we turn this around.”

What do you make of the rise of AI and the prospect of a four-day working week? Let us know in the comments.

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