Ahem, the 40 hour week is what we were talking about. Most work weeks were 48 to 50 hours at the time of Johnsons and Fords unilateral implementation of the 40 hour work week across their companys.

Who is attempting the revision of history?

 

no jobs in ohio? lets balance the budget on the backs of public workers. we all know the teachers, snowplow drivers,prison guards are paid way too excessivley. never mind the fact that govt has actively encouraged businesses to leave, in the form of nafta, cafta and once the precedence has been set our honorable and highly ethical business leaders would rush to smash every protection, every injustice in the holy name of profit. hail the republicans.

 

The decline of unions, exporting living wage manufacturing jobs and general corruption have put things into quite a tail spin. Union jobs used to be the way less educated people managed to make a living and be able to raise a family in manufacturing. Corrupt union officials exploited thier position and access to huge piles of money for personal profit or the benefit of organized crime. Government worked hard, especialy under Ronald Reagan to bust the unions and undermine the gains that had been made for the working man and helping to enable the exportation of jobs no longer protected by unions. Unions in this country used to be able to flex alittle muscle and shut almost evrything down if they realy wanted to. Now they can only manage to shut down schools and the docks.They havent been able to export those jobs yet.

Then there is the fact that even if unions were to make a come back, with over half of the U.S. currency over seas and having no way to access that money. U.S. businesses especialy the small ones cant afford to pay the wages and benefits that union work would require.

 

Half of the currency is overseas?

Where did you get those numbers? The real number is less than 20% is off-shore.

Of the total cash in circulation, paper and coin, there is approximately $2 trillion in face value, coins actually have more total dollars in circulation than paper has. However, over 90% of the transactions in US dollars are electronic without a paper or metal legal tender instrument being involved.

The actual ownership of the currency is unimportant.

 

Don't argue with tenguy on this one, Kimiko. He's old enough to remember working for Henry Ford.

 

Actually, Hank worked for me.

 

This was as of 1996-> *not_secure_link*findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4126/is_n10_v82/ai_18786211/

Since then we have printed vastly more money to cover trade deficits that run between $250 billion and $400 billion annualy,helping to devalue the dollar. The electronic dollars you speak of that are outside the U.S. are as yet unaccounted since they dont exist in printed form and nobody seems to want to declare them but since U.S. companies manufacturing goods outside the U.S. and selling them here use electronic deposits to transfer payments it is a safe bet that its a big chunk of that $250 to $400 billion a year.

As for the ownership of currency not being important...perhapse you would like to transfer your currency to me from now on. I find currency highly useful for paying bills and buying things.

 

The forum is great!

 

I don't know what I would do without you.

Well, probably have to dedicate another 5% of my time to debunking tenguy and spend 85% less time fantasizing about you.

Neither of which I want to undertake.

 

It took me about 30 seconds to figure out that Henry Ford didn't think up the 40-hour work week in some kind of liberal fever-dream. Sometimes tenguy's straw-men are way too easy to torch.

Anyway, glad to be of help...we now rejoin our regular fantasy programming, which is already in progress....

 

They are rolling as we speak.

I hope you also caught the report that says public employee unions are not bankrupting states as the Koch Brothers propaganda would have people believe.

 

Sorry Kimi, it is you that seems to be living a fantasy life.

Name one major company that adopted the forty hour work week before Johnson, then name one heavy industry company who did it before Ford. BTW, Ford did it because it was more efficient.

The 8 hour day did come into use before them, but the work week was 5-1/2 or 6 days.

 

gj wisconsin

 

But that isn't what you said. You said, and I quote: "Actually the unions did very little to force workers protection laws." I proved you wrong.

 

When congress established the federal minimum wage in 1938 they determined that the "minimum living wage" <(the way they worded it) was 25 cents per hour based on a 40 hour work week. They also determined that after forty hours a worker was entitled to be paid time and a half, with the exception of certain positions like agriculture and food service. That was what set the 40 hour work week in stone for almost everybody.

 

On that statement, you are correct, the unions did indeed help forge new workers protection laws.

But then so did an enlightened voter, during times of change, there is usually a core of voices that start the ball rolling. We are witnessing this today, for decades the conservative voice has been meek, at least where fiscal reform is concerned. It is no longer an ideal that is discussed and discarded after the elections.

I really believe we are witnessing the beginning of a new era of fiscal reform.

 

I think you are more right than both of us know.

 

The new ear of fiscal reform,started with NAFTA or maybe Nixon and trickl down. take away from the middle class give to the rich, the kock brothers.

 

And I really believe we are witnessing the beginning of a new era of oppression of the working class. Although I think the beginning was actually in 1980.

 

And Ronald Reagan was the one who ended the 40 hour work week for some industries. Drilling rigs for example went from rig crews working seven, eight hour tours to working 12 hours a day for seven days and then taking seven days off.

So you work seven, 12 hour tours in a row and you know how much of that was overtime? Four fucking hours. That's it. Because Reagan also allowed companies to start splitting their shifts and pay periods.

That was a huge monetary loss to people who worked on drilling rigs and in mines. It is also a real safety hazard which industries have also cooked the books on to make up excuses for the increase in accidents and deaths.

And the deaths that don't count is the half dozen or more roughnecks and drillers that die in car wrecks trying to make it home after they were exhausted by the hitch.

Like I said in the oilfield right now the human beings are the disposable parts. And it would take a union to change that. Because the way it is now its way cheaper to kill and cripple people than it is to shut down slow down and do things right.