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Kevin Parcell

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On what kind of world would all the children eat?

Your thoughts?

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  • Rhona Pavis 50+

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    Mar 31 2012: 3-day work week combined with $30.00-per-hour minimum wage, all the children of the world would eat well and be healthy and happy and so would their parents.
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      Krisztián Pintér 200+

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      TED Translator
      Mar 31 2012: could you present the logical steps how that systems causes such effects?

      • Rhona Pavis 50+

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        Mar 31 2012: Poverty is caused in part by the fear of the greedy exploiting the poor. Productivity has been rising steadily. Wages have not risen in proportion to increases in productivity. People working too many hours are deprived of happy, healthy human relationships, time to do their own thing. If people had enough freedom, enough time to do their own thing, their creativity, productivity, health and happiness would increase. The top 1% of the money income group would feel safer knowing people are not lusting after their wealth because they have enough of their own to live lives of sufficient material well-being, time for good human relationships, dignity and other positive consequences of freedom and sufficient economic income and assets.
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          Krisztián Pintér 200+

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          TED Translator
          Mar 31 2012: any data backing that up? as i see, in the last hundred years, wages went up like crazy. exploitation diminished. and today, the major consumer of products are the workers themselves.

          this entire image of oppressed masses and selected few is totally off base. this vision is so limited in time and in place, and perfectly detached from reality.
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          Bryanna O'Mara

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          Apr 2 2012: I do agree that most people (at least that I know!) work more hours than is healthy, and that does have a negative effect on their relationships and health. But I disagree that giving people more leisure time will lessen their desire for money. We live in a world that is driven by consumerism and our perceived status is based off of what we own. A lot of people would still be lusting after that top 1%'s cars, clothes, houses, lives, etc. And at $30 an hour I know I would volunteer to pick up a shift or two extra for some of those perks.

      • Rhona Pavis 50+

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        Mar 31 2012: Kris, I disagree with you. Productivity of workers went up like crazy. Money income of 1% of the population went up like crazy. Perhaps you have been observing a narrow segment of the world's population. Check out reality directly and through the honest statistics. Show me where money income is equitably distributed.
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          Krisztián Pintér 200+

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          TED Translator
          Mar 31 2012: your data is misaligned. increase in productivity overlaps with increase in income for the masses. USA in the 1800!s and india right now.

      • Rhona Pavis 50+

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        Apr 1 2012: Kris- Did you read this?
        http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/news/WCMS_083976/lang--en/index.htm
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          Krisztián Pintér 200+

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          TED Translator
          Apr 1 2012: it would be nice of you to quote some relevant sentences or data, or summarize what is in it. however, here is the very beginning of the article:

          "New ILO report says US leads the world in labour productivity"

          please note that it talks about the current data point, not growth. at the same time, US kinda leads in wages too. wage and productivity goes hand in hand.

          "some regions are catching up, most lag behind"

          exactly as i have said. india and china catching up, somalia and afganistan does not.

          "While productivity levels have increased worldwide over the past decade"

          but not in the US. income also went up in the past decade. but also not in the US.

          to recite my point again: productivity is in very good correlation of wages and income in general.
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      James Howells

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      Apr 2 2012: of course we would have 2/5 the supply of food since a farmer couldn't possible work a three day work week and still be successful... and a population increased exponentially due to all that extra leisure time!
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        Bryanna O'Mara

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        Apr 2 2012: I agree. The population would explode with this amount of leisure time, and then we would still be fighting the same problem of too many mouths to feed. Also I don't think a lot of industries could survive on a 3 day workweek - but farmers would definitely be number 1 on the list.
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          Mitch SMith 50+

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          Apr 2 2012: You are all so beutifully programmed - to think that life is divided by work and leisure.
          YOu mistake "job" for "work"
          You mistake "entertainment" for "leisure".
          You mistake "psychopath" for "hero".
          You mistake "woman" for "prize".
          And by these mistakes, your lives are arbitrariliy chopped into small allotments by which the crazy farmer runs you like cattle.
          It is the crazy farmer who grows and harvests you.
          If you regain your life:
          turn away from the boxes of seduction,
          abandon the insane hero,
          abandon "job",
          discard your prize and let a woman select you.
          Walk off teh farm and allow your life to relax beyond the fences.
          THen you will not talk of work and leisure,
          then you will wake and live, sleep, rise and live again amongst others who are also whole.

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