21 Hour Work Week Article

**pollypurebred39** · 01-16-2012, 03:29 PM

I think it might work if you make more than a minimum or living wage, and were willing to really seriously scale down in life, or maybe change your living arrangements. I'm not sure how much you'd have to make per hour, but you'd for sure have to bring home over poverty level, and have good health care insurance, because health care could not be out of pocket on a seriously scaled down income.

But.........if you look at it from the point of view that many people here in the U.S. are working for min. wage @ a 40 hour+ week, and are without health insurance. We see a lot of that here where I live. A lot of cohabitation, like commune type stuff. A lot of vegan, vegetarian hippie type stuff. Big natural movement out here. Organic, midwives, Reki, hydrotherapy, etc. A lot of the commune people work at the organic farms around here, or the waldorf school, health food store, or one of the other natural type things.

I could never live like that, but my one cousin does and he loves it. He and his girlfriend live in a commune, and raise their kids with all the other couples and their kids. A big commune farm and farm house. They farm and sell organic foods, no one brings in any income. They have meetings and decide and vote on needs, and such. Everyone has to agree. They all have their own jobs. Everyone is considered equal. Everyone's voice counts. We don't see him often, he feels he's living in utopia and rarely leaves the farm.

Then we have many homes where several generations live together under one roof. It's the only way they can make it with either the wages or small hours. For some I think it works out very well. Our neighbors across the street seem very happy. As do our neighbors next door, and our neighbors next to them. So I think it could work if people were willing to change how they live.

**indigo53** · 01-17-2012, 09:48 AM

But there are many smaller changes we could make as a society. My daughter works for a progressive company that lets her take an occasional "work at home day". She uses these when she has a sick kid, bad roads, the electrician's coming etc. Technology allows the employer to know how much work she puts out that day. There are many companies that could have employees work at home one day a week. Why not have a 4 day work week, close the office down one day? It would reduce traffic congestion, save on parking, gas, company utilities etc. There are companies who could do this, but they just WON'T. Humans don't want to change their mindset even if it means going over a cliff. Wait until gas goes over $5 a gallon, maybe we'll be ready to make changes then.

**Telephus44** · 01-17-2012, 11:12 AM

A lot of it depends on the family dynamic, too. DH and I are a two income household. If we both went to 21 hours a week, then we could probably make it but would be living pretty close to the edge without making drastic lifestyle changes (like selling our house and moving to a LCOL area).

At least in the fields we work in, we are seeing a greater shift towards flexible hours - DH works from home, so sometimes he puts in 6 hours a day and sometimes 10. I can access my email from home and a lot of times will do "work" things on a snow day or if my child is sick and I have to stay home. Obviously not all jobs can work this way, but at least in our fields that's been a huge trend towards this style of flexible in the last 10 years.

**nodmicks** · 01-17-2012, 11:30 AM

It really depends on the income made and if you are a one or two income household. Does the household support children? Help out adult parents? That makes a difference. We could do it if we wanted to homestead 100% and live like our Amish neighbors. However we do not want to do that.

**peanut** · 01-17-2012, 11:45 AM

We could probably do it on half our income, but there would be no savings for capital expenses like a new car or house renovations. So we'd be looking at having more than one generation in the house, or a renter/boarder. Or downsizing to something more affordable. We already live in a LCOL locale.

Interesting idea, and even more interesting France has tried it.

I notice the younger generation is less inclined to work the long hours my generation did at their ages. I have one DD who insists on only working part time. But her fiance works full time and then some to make up for it! Not sure I'm totally happy with that. I think she should be pulling more of her weight, unless there's a health issue I don't know about.

My other DD works full out, but is planning a break for some career planning in the future. And her DH is looking for work in companies that have nice benefits such as paying for further education, etc. Hmm...not sure about all this. We were just happy to have a job at that age!

I do know one DD has decided to try and sell some writing. She's been paid for writing before. So it's possible she can do this with success. If so, it will mean a writer's lifestyle...working from home...which would probably suit her just fine! That would put her right in line with the 21 hour work week, though I suspect as a writer she'd work more than that come close to deadline! But she could basically pick and choose her own hours.

I would love to have DH around more to do more around the house. But I'm not convinced more time off equals doing more frugal things. Some people would still waste their time on their addictions and hobbies.

**FrabjousDay** · 01-17-2012, 12:13 PM

I love working half time, and do so whenever possible. I'm super productive and my time flies by. It feels like so much fluff is packed into a 40 hour work week (or maybe I just have a low tolerance for pointless meetings). If the agency I work for would better embrace technology, I could easily work two days/week from home when doing fulltime hours. The traditional 40 hour report to the office work week feels so old fashioned to me, but I'm very much a "work to live" not a "live to work" person.