the april fifteenth nineteen thirty three issue of newsweek
is one of the first in the magazine's history
anne contained a remarkable cover headline
bill cutting work week two thirty hours startles the nation
so nineties earlier before that cover was on the magazine on april sixth
the black connery bill as it was called
had passed in the united states senate
by a wide margin
and what the bill date is affixed the official american workweek at five days
and thirty hours
with severe penalties
for overtime work
i had no idea about this
now on the political science major i learned about the issue the united
states and i probably know a little bit more than your average person does about
something like that
i had no idea about this
we actually passed by thirty hour work week into law
once you ended up happening
now gets the pressing
so even
f_d_r_
and the labor secretary frances perkins
the michelly endorse the idea the president united states it yeah i'm in
favor
uh... but the president buckled under opposition from the national association
of manufacturers
and dropped his support for the bill which was then defeated in the house of
representatives
and in its place what roosevelt ended up doing
was he advocated it by job creating new deal spending so more new deal spending
and of forty hour work week limit instead
now that passed into law on october twenty fourth nineteen thirty eight
as part of what's called the fair labor standards act
so people realize that i do
realize that excuse me
we were
this close to having officially of thirty hour work week
now if you thought that was surprising
a new york times headlined
on july thirty first nineteen ten
how long should a man's vacation b
president taft says everyone should have
three months
so this is out of time by the way
when workers produced attempt of what they do today
and william howard path
was a conservative republican
and he argued that all workers needed to or three months of holiday time each
year
to improve health family connections and productivity
and
more than a hundred years later
now
americans average two weeks of paid vacation and a quarter of us
get none at all
let that soak in for a second i'm
how depressing is that we almost had a thirty hour work week
we had conservative republican saying yeah you need a minimum of three months
offer human beings wadi crazy of course you need time to relax in a collector
sell to be more productively with family there's more important things in life
then being us spoke
in though we'll of the world
there was a horrible way of raising it but you know what i'm saying i'm in the
machine there you go that makes more sense right
but now it's like uh...
it's considered liberal it is their progress it to say i six weeks paid
vacation by law
we are concerned republicans calling for a way more than that
back in nineteen ten
no you know i learned from this article other than just being floor
about history i had no idea about
this is what i learned
usually when i talk about this issue
by always say okay i'm in favor of uh...
six weeks paid vacation by law
i think that that's fair that makes sense that's reasonable
but then i really
thought about it more after reading this you know when i realized
the reason why i drew the line at six weeks is because
most people nowadays do you have to be reasonable like i a six weeks that's
uh... a little on the high side but it's reasonable right
yeah but that's only
the only reason i have came to that numbers because i'm thinking within the
confines of the way we work today which is way too much right
now if i actually where the white
the slate clean and start my mind from scratch and really try to think
rationally about this
you know my actual answer would be
in a civilized society
we should divvy up or worked on an earlier time it should be fifty fifty
if you asked me to start from scratch pres aside from scratch i'd say okay so
you work fifteen percent of time because you have to be a member of society
and do your part and contribute and be more than just about yourself and not be
selfish
we also should have time for leisure time to be yourself and be happy
so fight you actually asi mouse opinion starting from scratch how much if you
work which is how much free country you have
yeah i'd say fifty fifty
and it sound like it's it's from mars
but is that really that radical if you're thinking about it
withdrawing yourself in the society hearing today and breaking free from the
courtroom chains and realizing
actually thinking independently for yourself how you would like to give your
time up for example is not crazy abdul a bad idea makes all the sense of the
world
so yeah you know this article maybe think
uh... undone i'm not
i'm not going to only say i'm in favor of six weeks paid vacation now but
that's not actually when i'm in favor
i'm in favor of you should get
half of the year off
for them for leisure time
to relax and do job that you do for the other half of the year
should be enough to pay the bills
you should have been able to have a living standard based off of that
now this makes me like uh... crew are easy vote liberal leftist progressives
socialists maoist communist in
in
the world today is particularly in america
you could label me wherever the fuck you wanna label me i think that make sense
and
apparently not too long ago
the debate was much different than the one we're having today
the debate was should we do thirty
but hour work week person we do
three months
vacation pay vacationers we do more what you read it
here's what the debate wasn't
she we do like two weeks