Removal of penalty rates sits comfortably with working fewer hours

The present push for the removal of penalty rates for workers sits comfortably with the Four-Hour Work Day.

Children understand and enoy social
 interaction more than adults.

People can be asked to work any time of the day or night, on any day, for the same pay rate with the over-riding and incontrovertible conditions that they only work four hour shifts, no overtime, no double shifts and an absolute maximum of 20 hours a week.

The idea of work, certainly in the 20^th century and the early years of the 21^st, has become has become decidedly disjointed so much so that in the developed world it has become our “reason” precluding, at the expense of our general wellbeing, a more humane way of living.

That “more humane way of living” would allow us to exploit our natural sociality without the seemingly inexorable mercenary pressure and competitiveness that is common in the modern commercial world.

The underlying intensity of the modern business world runs counter in our psyche to the paradigm to the health, happiness and enjoyment, and freedom, a person needs to experience genuine fulfilment.

Work, of course, is important for a host of reasons, among them the sense of reason and purpose it gives a person, it allows for the creation of many things that society needs and, although biased, it enriches our social interaction.

The argument that we should work fewer hours each day and by implication each week, is fraught with challenges and difficulties, but the reason we should has an implacable ally – our behaviour is changing earth’s climate and to adapt to that we need to slow dramatically our consumption of energy-hungry goods.

To slice through human consumption we need to be in a position to spend less and working fewer hours each day, and by implication each week, will make us fundamentally poorer and so less able to be the consumers that the existing commercial world so urgently needs.

A genuine adaptation to climate change will never be easy, and nor will it be easy to adapt to the Four-Hour Work Day.