WEBVTT - How the Five Day Weekend Works 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:16.520 from house Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:21.439 stuff you should know. It's Josh and Chuck. You're waiting 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:23.360 on me. I was, I was. I was staring right 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:25.160 at you, Chuck. I didn't notice. I should have given 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:28.520 you a yeah. Yeah. Um, you know, Chuck, I don't 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:33.320 know if you've checked out the editorial department calendar recently 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:37.519 of our editorial calendar. Sure, yeah, yeah, sure, not not 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:41.440 the not the the articles slated, but our actual calendar calendar. 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:43.839 Oh no, no, no, I know you haven't. Well, you 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:46.440 will be pleasantly surprised to find that if you go 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:50.400 into the week of Christmas this coming December, we work 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:53.800 two days. That's not and you know I'm not working 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:56.480 any Are you taking those days off? Oh yeah, I'm 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:58.600 taking off a couple of weeks. Wow, you know, I 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:01.680 used up almost all my big catient time. I'm very 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:06.200 grateful for this, But do you realize what that gives us? Uh? Less, 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:08.240 what it gives me? Well, it sounds like a two 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:11.759 day work week. It sounds also like a five day weekend. Right, 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:14.120 one man's two day work week is another man's five 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:16.000 day week. Yeah, it definitely depends on how you look 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:18.320 at if your workaholic two day work week, if you're 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.840 you know, a slacker five day weekend, right, that sounds great? 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.920 It does. And actually, um our HR department is isn't 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.880 the first to ever come up with this concept. It 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:33.360 is so there's actually a movement of foot chuck called 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:37.360 the Friends of the Five Day Weekend. There's actually a 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:42.280 constitutional amendment, a proposal for one, which last time I 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:46.360 counted had about signatures on it. I wasn't too impressed 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:50.200 with that number. By the way, it could be better, um, 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:54.480 basically petitioning Congress to say, all right, you know, we're 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:56.760 we're going to have a two day work week from 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:00.200 now on and the rest is the weekend. Legally, you 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:01.880 if you work more than this, you have to pay. 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:03.840 You have to be paid over time. Right. I love 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:06.240 that this group really went for it there. They didn't 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:08.760 go with a three day weekend or even a fourth 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.520 They just said, screw it, five days off, two days 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:13.560 a week will work. Yeah, And we should probably give 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:15.919 a little background on this group. I gotta tell you, 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:19.240 um it sounds very tongue in cheek. It sounds um, 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:23.680 almost satirical and a joke, and it almost completely is. 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:28.040 It's um. The group behind it is the Asheville Convention 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:32.800 and Visitors Bureau, I Brave Asheville, North North Carolina, and um, 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:35.800 this is uh an ad campaign of marketing campaign to 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:38.799 get people to Asheville to you know, create this five 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:41.160 day weekends so everybody could come to Asheville and spend 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.400 their five day weekends there. Now, Gina, how it was 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:46.840 the idea just to get press, I think so. I 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:48.280 think that was part of it, but I think it 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.720 was kind of like a whole campaign, and then the 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:57.160 press aspect wrote itself, especially once they floated a constitutional amendment, 0:02:57.720 --> 0:02:59.240 So it was kind of a tongue in cheek thing. 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:03.600 But actually, um, people reacted to it. They responded to it. 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.239 You know, Hey, that sounds great kind of thing. Especially 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:08.560 I imagine when there's like you know, they they had 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:11.840 they held rallies at festivals and stuff like that, and 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:14.959 I imagine the more beer there was there, the more 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:19.079 of a response there was. You know, yeah, were five 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:21.919 day weekend kind of thing. So, um, well, we found 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.639 out about it here at how stuff works, and of course, 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:29.000 as is our way, um, we took a tongue in 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:34.240 cheek idea to the nth degree. It's extreme conclusion, and 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:36.560 wanted to find out. I mean, like, what what the 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:38.880 deal is? Could this even work? What would happen if 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:41.240 it did? So it's like you'd be careful making a 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:44.400 joke around us, because we'll we'll we'll investigate it and 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:47.160 publish it and if if it's a stupid idea, we'll 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:51.000 we'll say so. But frankly, these people, I think they 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.040 have a good idea. I think the friends of the 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:56.120 Five Day Weekend they have a a good idea. And 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.560 they're they're actually pointing something out. What's that they're pointing 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:02.800 out that Americans work way too hard and have become far, 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:05.960 far too serious. Well, Donald Trump doesn't agree with you, No, 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:08.560 he doesn't. But that's the Donald. You know. He said 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.520 he said the idea was ridiculous. He did he actually 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:14.440 he said it in his blog, right. I got to 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:16.440 him in the first place. I'm impressed that he knows 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:20.320 how to blog. So, um, yeah, he he didn't. He 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:22.960 didn't like that. But there's plenty of people who agree 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.680 with the concept um and actually this this this idea 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:31.599 that Americans are overworked is We've got yards of figures here, Chuck, Chuck, 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:35.560 how about some figures. I'm the statmn UH in two 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:39.159 thousand seven survey was performed by the Conference Board, and 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:41.680 they found that a fewer than fifty percent of Americans 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:44.840 were happy with their jobs, which is, yeah, that's pretty sad. 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:51.040 Though UH in seven had job satisfaction. That's a sharp decline. 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.960 And you will know note that I think in nineteen 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:58.080 eight seven, that was the year that the Michael Keaton 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:02.680 pro America movie Gung Ho came out and really kicked 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.400 the American worker into overdrive. We're not gonna get beaten 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.880 by the Japanese. Let's get to work, you know, be 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:12.039 the lovable Michael Keaton led the charge. Well, I think 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:16.440 that's it centered exclusively around the movie Gung Ho. Yeah, 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:20.400 pre batman, Michael Keaton. Uh. And then there was another 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:23.040 study in two thousand four that um, one third of 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:25.880 all Americans feel overworked, which I thought it might be 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.279 a little higher than that. To be honest, I would too, 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.200 But I think we we've also developed an endurance over time, 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:35.000 Tom and fat lazy pre gung Ho days to like, 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:38.240 you know, kind of a lean, trim workforce. Yeah, and 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:40.880 we have now that's slightly evidenced by and I know 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:43.600 something else. You mentioned the article that, uh, a lot 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:46.360 of Americans don't use all their vacation days No. Ten 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:49.720 of fourteen. Yeah, that's just that was in three thousand 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.120 and six. That added to five hundred and seventy four 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.480 million unused vacation days. Yeah, that is one thing you 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:59.200 will never catch me with unused vacation That's great. Hats 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:01.039 off to you, buddy. I just I don't I don't 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.200 get it. Time off is good. I'm not lazy. No, 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:06.520 you definitely aren't lazy, but you know, you know how 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:08.080 to live, you know how to take care of yourself, 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:10.200 and the value of time off, it's a value at 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:12.119 treasure it. But I think there's a lot of people. 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:14.200 I think you could even say a majority of American 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.240 workers don't know. They don't know how to do that. 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:19.839 So that's kind of the point of this five day weekend. 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:22.159 It's like, wake up, man, settle down, let's all just 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:24.840 kind of chill out here there, learn to live like 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:27.400 chuck that kind of right. Well, I think I don't 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:29.120 have any stats for this but I bet a lot 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:32.240 of these types are the men and women that are 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.440 after the dollar and that you know, they figure if 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.560 they're snoozing, they're losing on money. And um, you know 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:43.640 people use acidine rhymes to describe their motivations, right, and 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.560 we're not really like that. We're meager livers and uh yeah, 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.040 we we know how to be happy and content. Yeah 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:52.560 without you know, making three hundred thousand dollars a year, 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:57.880 you're not making three Maybe I should renegotiation. So, um, 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:01.080 if you'll notice, chuck the end of the five day weekend, 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:05.880 Like I said, they proposed a constitutional amendment. Now, if Congress, 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:08.880 for some weird reason took this up, championed it, and 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:11.880 passed it, it actually wouldn't be the first time that 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:14.680 they've done this. Did you know that there wasn't any 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:17.160 such thing as a weekend in the United States until 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:21.880 nine that's weird. And the weekend was actually created by 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:24.640 a congressional act. That's so cool. Yeah, I bet no 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:27.400 one that that's that's the your takeaway today, folks. If 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:29.240 you want to amaze around the water cooler, that's a 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.400 good fact. The weekend was created by Congress, right, and 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:35.800 it was called the Fair Labor Standards Act. Yeah, we 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.160 talked about, um, we talked about the the Labor Department 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:44.240 in Free Market Regulation podcast if we'll remember um, and 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:48.160 you know, they shouldn't exist in this free market. But really, 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:50.720 the Fair Labor and Standards Act is one of these 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.680 shining acts that really protects people. You know. It established 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:58.640 a forty four hour work week, you know, Monday through Friday, 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:03.520 about eight hours a day. Um. It also established a 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:07.800 minimum wage, I got rid of child labor across the board. 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:09.440 It was a good act and it's still the test 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:11.880 of time, clearly because the forty hour work week is 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:15.440 still kind of between forty and still the standard exactly. Okay, 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.840 So so what would happen if we did go to 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:22.920 a two day a week work week? Um? Well, you 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:27.000 tell me, you know, you tell me, Well, it depends 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:31.440 on are you talking about economically speaking? Yeah, I know, 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:35.680 people be a lot happier. Well supposedly, it depends. I mean, 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:38.600 can you can you really say that? Well, that's just 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.120 my feeling. Okay, let me let me tell you about 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:43.959 an unnatural law that you might be interested in. Right, 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.160 here's the first problem with with the two day work week. 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:49.000 How are you going to do five days worth of 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:52.400 work in two days? Is it possible? Well, stay off 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:57.200 Facebook exactly a good start. There's this guy named I 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:01.679 believe Alan Parkinson. No, that's Alan Parsons project. I think 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:06.040 you know, uh see Northcote Parkinson. He created Parkinson's law. 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:09.880 It's like Murphy's law. Um, it's an unnatural law, right, 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:14.880 kind of a Rye observation um. And Parkinson's law says 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:18.760 that UM work expands so as to fill the time 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:22.120 available for its completion. So if you have, you know, 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:26.080 a one day job to you know, to do, but 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:28.400 you're given a week to do it, it's gonna take 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:30.880 you pretty much all week to do that job, no 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:33.800 matter how hard you try. So I guess if you 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:37.720 put Parkinson's law up to the you know, five day weekend, 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.280 you could you could probably trim several days off of 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:44.680 your work week if you just went all out for 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:48.440 those two days. Probably not going to be able to 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:52.000 finish everything in two days, but it is possible, right, 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:56.200 I would agree? Okay, So, um, So that's that's number one, UM, 0:09:56.280 --> 0:10:00.680 and then number two as far as the five the 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:05.040 friends of the five day weekend see it basically, Um, 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.840 we're not taking any time for ourselves as it is 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:12.640 even on the weekends, because there's a lot of times, 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:14.920 so much time spent working that the weekends are often 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:19.160 spent doing chores, housework, that kind of thing. And in 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:23.199 a strict economic sense and as strict economic definition, actually, UM, 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:27.840 leisure time is activities that give direct enjoyment. So just 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:30.280 because you have time off doesn't mean you're engaging in 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:32.880 leisure time, which is the whole point behind the five 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:35.400 day weekend thing. We need more time to have leisure 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:38.480 time because, like you said, we're vacuuming, we're running errands, 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:41.400 that kind of thing. That's not leisure time. That's working 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:44.560 but not being paid for it, you know. UM, So 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.520 that's another aspect of the whole thing, and there's also 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.920 a physical aspect to it. Our health could actually improve, 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:56.839 UM if we adopted a five day weekend case. In 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:01.439 point a two thousand study UM from the University of 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:05.679 Pittsburgh and the State University of New York Oswego, they 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:09.360 found that there was a there is a direct correlation 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:12.760 between middle aged men who are at risk for heart disease, 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:16.600 suffering heart attacks, and a lack of vacation time. Right 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:18.480 I did a lot of articles recently on the heart 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:21.040 and stress, as you know, and it's there. It's not 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.880 supposed you know, it's those are direct links. Yeah, there's 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:27.160 definitely a mind body link, and it appears to be 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:32.079 stresses is the most clear um example of it, right right, 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.440 So okay, so we would technically be able to to 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:38.480 do most of our work in two days that we're 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:42.480 now taking five days to do. Um, we would uh, 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:46.280 we would be able to actually engage in actual leisure time. 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:50.040 Our health would benefit. And even more, there's a model 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:53.160 already in place for lots of time off and that's 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.320 in Europe. Correct. I went, I went to Malta. Remember 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.480 this summer. There's this guy who's a diplomat over in 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:03.160 crow Geatia. He's an English diplomat and he had like 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.480 eighties six paid days off per year. You're kidding. No, 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:09.400 I'm not kidding at all. He hardly knew what to 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:11.600 do with all the time off that he had, and 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:15.280 it was fairly fairly common, fairly standard, and I'm like, wow, 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.880 I get two weeks off, you know. So yeah, it 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:21.120 was kind of um, it was a rough thing to 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:24.280 come you know, face to face with, right I'm jealous 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.200 of your We often talk about our weekend activities and 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.680 I'm all, you really do do it right at your house. Yeah, 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:33.720 but you you you have very you have a very 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:37.520 improved house. Well, I'm renovating a house. Some of you 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:39.280 may know this, some of you may not. So there's 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:41.720 a lot of work to be done on the weekends. Um. 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.240 I do get pleasure out of that, though, So I 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.000 guess technically that still counsels leisure time as long as 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:50.480 you're driving. Pleasure is a direct pleasure. So, Chuck, let's 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:52.760 look at it from an economic aspect. Now we know 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:54.480 what the friends of the five day weekend. You're saying 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.400 that it could be beneficial to us, but you know, 0:12:57.679 --> 0:12:59.920 would it be beneficial of the economy. Well, this is 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:01.959 where you need to school meet, because I know economics 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:05.600 is your your one true love in life. I love economics. 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:09.280 Actually it's so weird and nerdy, but I've become fascinated 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.079 by it as I've grown older. And there's this guy 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:16.480 who pertains to what we're talking about, um named John 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.400 Maynard Keynes, and uh he appropriately enough came up with 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:26.440 Keensian economics, and um, he wrote a paper basically Keensie 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:29.800 and economics is a form of macro economics. So before 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:33.040 people would say, okay, um, there's this much much wealth 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:35.640 in the world, or you know, people sold this many 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:39.480 goods and um, you know there was this gross profit 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.480 and then you know, minus expenditures, and now you have 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:46.079 net profit. And there's economics. And keens is like, well, well, whoa, 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:49.280 we're missing like a lot of aspects here, so like 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:55.680 our are really um, I guess granular uh view of economics. 0:13:55.720 --> 0:14:01.199 Now we're we're keeping track of office supply indexes or indicaes. Um, 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:03.079 that's all KINSI. And he said we need to take 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:07.000 into account debt and taxes and all this other stuff. Right, 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:09.960 makes sense. So by the time he writes this paper, 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:15.760 UM called um economic go Ahead, go ahead, Economic possibilities 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.560 for our grandchildren. Right, And he writes that in ninety 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:21.960 and he'd already established himself as like the the economic 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:26.400 genius of his age. So he writes this thing. Everybody's listening, right, 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.520 and in it he says, okay, he took a very 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:34.880 conservative growth rate of um of the economy and wealth, 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:39.600 which he called capital um equipment. Yeah, thank you, um. 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:43.720 He said two percent growth per year and seven and 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:46.760 a half percent growth of the capital equipment, which is, 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:51.360 I believe all the money available in the world, um, 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:54.760 and within a hundred years we're going to basically be 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:57.160 living in this leisure society. The friends of the Five 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:59.600 Day Weekend came up with, Yeah, I love this theory 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:03.960 right now. He actually took a his estimates were pretty 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:07.160 much spot on, and they were actually slightly more concerned. 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:10.320 We've grown more than that, and I believe like our 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:13.360 capital equipment has grown much more than seven and a half. 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:15.600 I think it's like a hundred or two hundred times 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:20.560 or some some really enormous amount, and yet we're still 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:24.560 not in this leisure society that Keene's envision within a 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:27.280 hundred years. Even though we far exceeded his his predictions 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:29.320 for growth, he was off the mark there for sure. 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:33.800 He was though, why well, I think you actually didn't 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:37.360 interview him, correct, I did two interviews, Uh, And I've 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:39.720 always kind of had this idea that if you want 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:43.800 to know a question, go to Harvard. It's they They 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:47.360 have some really really good interview subjects. And actually I 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.480 also called a guy from Cornell too, and both of 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:55.360 them just turned out to be spot on and um, yeah, 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:59.760 from Cornell Robert Frank, and from Harvard Richard Freeman. And 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:01.880 the thing is is I call both of them out 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:03.920 of the blue. Neither one of them had ever heard 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:06.240 of the five day weekend before, and both of them 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:09.560 just right off the cuff talked just perfectly, gave me 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.840 all the information I needed. And as if that weren't enough, 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:15.640 both of them had just submitted chapters for a book 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:19.320 called Revisiting kens On the very question I called them about, 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:21.200 and I had no idea that book was even coming out, 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:23.520 So it was all just kind of going, like, you know, 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:26.360 we're operating on all cylinders here. I'm kind of I 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:28.760 can't sit down while I'm interviewing. I'm very excited. It's 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:32.760 economics and all that. Um So Robert Frank from Cornell. 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:37.040 His his theory was that we haven't reached this Keynsian 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:44.640 leisure society because Keenes grossly underestimated relative needs. So you've 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:47.720 got basic needs, right, which are like food and water 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:51.800 and say clothing, right, and then there's relative needs as well, 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:55.400 which can also be basic needs, like, for example, clothing 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.680 but instead of you know, tattered rags that keep you warm, 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:03.120 relative need would be a nice suit. And what Frank 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:07.600 was saying was that, um, in our modern society, it's 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.560 not enough to just have tattered rags that keep you warm. 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.879 If you want to have a better life, if you 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:16.680 want to provide for your children, you have to throw 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:18.760 more into relative needs. So your suit has to be 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:21.640 nicer so you can get a better job at an 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.800 interview and then pay for your children. And it's become 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:27.439 much more important. You can't walk into a place in 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:30.400 an interview and in rags, this basic need that's been 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:34.560 recovered and expect to advance in life. So he it 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:37.080 was his opinion that that's why Kenes missed the Mark 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:40.520 Freeman and now you interviewed and this was from Harvard, correct, 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:44.639 and uh, he just kind of flatly said that Keenes 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:48.520 overestimated our desire for leisure and that it's a five 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.639 day work week is pretty optimal. Yeah, he said that that, Um, 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:55.680 that labor and management came to a perfect agreement pretty 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.640 much to the five day, five day work week, eight 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:01.960 hour day. What do you think? I gotta tell you, you 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:05.600 you know, I I had sent before that that's I 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:08.560 don't like too much time off. It's weird. I feel weird. 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:10.000 I feel like I have to do something, I have 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:13.640 to produce something, and um yeah, too much time off 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:15.439 actually makes me a little edgy. I think a four 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:17.480 day work week would be just about right for me. 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:19.920 I think it'd be good to pepper it here there. 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:22.320 I don't think it has to be standard every time, 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:24.400 but maybe like twice a month you get a day 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:25.960 or two off or something like that. And we're not 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.119 talking about telecommuting. It's a different deal. It totally is. 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:32.280 It's actually a day off, right, yeah, a day off 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.639 where you're just not expected to do any work. Um. Okay, 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.360 So so now we we the friends of the five 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:41.760 day week, they five day weekend. They don't, um they 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:45.000 they're not the first to come up with it. Keynes did. Um. 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:49.040 But I asked Freeman and Frank uh, you know what, really, 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.640 what would happen to the economy? Epogetically? What would happen? Yeah, 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:54.960 but you got well, I know the first thing that, um, 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:57.119 you would have to do is to convince your employers 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:00.360 to pay you a full wage for two day his work, 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:04.600 so paying on production rather than time, right, which makes sense. 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:07.760 But I don't think either of them assume that employers 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:10.080 would be willing to do that. So right there, you 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:12.160 you've got two fifths of the wages we have now, 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:16.280 which is fine for domestic products. Right, so anything that's 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:19.520 produced domestically, Um, it's going to fall down and step 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:22.960 eventually to reflect these two fifths of wages that Americans 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:26.840 are making. In theory es okay, But also houses would 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:30.680 get substantially smaller, cars would get substantially smaller, but we'd 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:33.960 be able to survive. Basically, America would take a gigantic 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:38.359 step backward out of the rat race as one collective whole. 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:40.000 But then it would all kind of catch up with 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:43.520 itself and adjust itself. It would, and and everything would 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:45.480 be fine. I would be much like it is now, 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:50.520 except two fifths is valuable. But for and produced goods 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:53.680 in comparison to our lowered wages, the prices of those 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:57.960 would skyrocket. Right, So so long Sony plasma TV, because 0:19:57.960 --> 0:19:59.840 if you would be so, it be is out of 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.360 out of bounds. Is as you know, a five million 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.520 dollar home is to the average person. Um, so you'd 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:09.760 have that, but again we'd still be fine. Our our 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:13.320 relative needs would with lower to to reflect that two 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.320 fifth wage. But I think it was a Freeman, who 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:20.359 predicted sadly that we would still compete with one another, like, 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:22.840 we'd still want to get the best TV we could 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.359 for two fifths of the wages we were getting, and 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:28.680 it we'd want it to be better than someone else. Yeah, 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:30.720 which is kind of sad that, you know, even after 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:34.239 taking a gigantic step backward, we would still compete with 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:38.000 one another. There's an interesting article. It'll clearly never happen, 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:40.679 but it's interesting to kind of think about what the 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:44.840 what if? I think so too. So there's actually quite 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:47.760 a bit more to this article, right, Uh, you tell 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:50.320 me you wrote it. Well, let's let's let's just advise 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:53.080 people to go on to our handy site, look into 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:56.000 our handy search bar. Just type five day weekend into 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.240 the search bar, how stuff works dot com and stick 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:04.119 around because it is uh. Listener mail time right, listener 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:08.440 mail time, listener mail time? Okay, so, Chuck, who is 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:11.240 our listener? Mail from? Our listener is David and we 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:13.320 have the last name. We don't know where David's from. 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:17.119 But David did not take kindly to our Delta Force podcast, 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:21.240 but he was very constructive in his criticism. Didn't just 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.400 slam us David says, Hi, Chuck and Josh, I usually 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.119 enjoy your podcast quite a bit, but your recent podcast 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:30.560 on Delta Force was way over the line. While I 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:33.439 appreciate the bone you threw human human rights activists at 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:36.159 the end before suggesting that they may be killed for 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:39.480 a policy disagreement, you're over the top adulation for all 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:42.520 things military was disturbing. You seem to suggest that any 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:45.399 action they took was justifiable, saying how happy you were 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:48.400 that they were taking care of business, not every policy 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:51.920 decision made by our government, particularly when using shadowy military 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:55.080 groups for the best. I'm not going to read it 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:57.760 because it's too long, but basically he thinks our opinion 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:01.160 of special forces might change if some European Arabian country 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:04.119