Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Scion of the Silver-Foot-In-The-Mouth Family Comments on The Need For Longer Working Hours


That scion would be Jeb Bush, part of the hereditary monarchy of the Bush family (though those families are quite a few in American politics).  His older brother you may dimly remember.  Now George was a master of those kinds of comments.  But never mind, the teflon aspect of the Bush family meant that he got to be the president two terms in a row.  What with the wars he started.

But Jeb isn't doing badly:

“My aspiration for the country and I believe we can achieve it, is 4 percent growth as far as the eye can see. Which means we have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours” and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families. That's the only way we're going to get out of this rut that we're in.”
Mmm.  As the linked article tells us, Americans are already working long hours.  To tell people who may already have more than one job, just to make ends meet, that they should work longer hours is insulting.

And the greater productivity of American workers has not benefited them in the aftermath of the recession.  Instead, it has benefited the Jeb Bush's peer group.  So why should workers work even longer hours? To benefit whom?