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Jeb Bush: People Need to Work Longer Hours [W: 64]

dpcal said:
“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.”

I can't see what the problem is. I don't claim to have any great economic insights, and there may be a another way to achieve a 4% growth rate, other than working more hours. But a sustained 4% growth rate over 5-6 years would dramatically increase government revenues and improve the finances of at least those putting in the longer hours. Clearly those people with larger paychecks will increase their demand and create additional employment opportunities for those currently without work. Yes I would prefer that the 4% growth rate could be achieved primarily by employing those currently seeking work, but I don't know how that would happen and I haven't heard of anything. Although DOA in either party, a good hard look at "free trade" might do wonders to increase employment and market driven wage increases. Before the long partisan knives get drawn, I fully recognize that a large portion of our society is working at jobs with wages so low that even after 40 hours, they may not have made it to poverty level, and don't have any benefits. But that's something else entirely.
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Seems like a pretty obvious statement to me. If you want more GDP you have to produce more. I cant really beleive that any of the posters in this thread complaing about already working 40+ hours seriously think that he was talking about them. The country has over 4 million job openings every month, and 40 million citizens not even looking for a job.
 
Amadeus said:
Of course, many part-time jobs are combined with other part-time jobs to support a family. Sometimes up to three or four. Which Jeb's brother said was uniquely American.
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Well, it's uniquely post-Obamacare, when the incentive for employers is to not allow workers to go beyond 29 hours a week.

Saudi oil money can certainly give you a divorced perspective from the American experience.
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I wouldn't know - you'd have to ask the Clintons.
 
shrubnose said:
Today, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who as of-late has gone relatively gaffe-free, uttered a phrase that may not go over too well with the constituency he wishes to reach.

Read the article here: http://new.yahoo.com/jeb-bush-people-longer-hours-235206730.html

Does anyone on this forum agree with Mr.Bush?

I don't. I'm retired now but most of my life I worked 7-days on, 7-days off, 12 hours a day. That's an 84 hour week. How many more hours does this guy think that I should have worked?

:lol:




"Better days are coming." ~ But not for today's out of touch, running out of time, GOP.
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I thought you claimed Jeb Bush would never make it to the White House?

Only someone terrified that Jeb Bush will be the next President would post such blatant misrepresentations of what he said.

To answer your question, I'm on this forum and I agree with Mr. Bush
 
shrubnose said:
Today, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who as of-late has gone relatively gaffe-free, uttered a phrase that may not go over too well with the constituency he wishes to reach.

Read the article here: http://new.yahoo.com/jeb-bush-people-longer-hours-235206730.html

Does anyone on this forum agree with Mr.Bush?

I don't. I'm retired now but most of my life I worked 7-days on, 7-days off, 12 hours a day. That's an 84 hour week. How many more hours does this guy think that I should have worked?

:lol:




"Better days are coming." ~ But not for today's out of touch, running out of time, GOP.
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Where did he make any implications that he was talking about you, people who already work long hours, or working more than double the normal work week? And you worked an average of 42 hour work weeks.
 
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CanadaJohn said:
I thought you claimed Jeb Bush would never make it to the White House?

Only someone terrified that Jeb Bush will be the next President would post such blatant misrepresentations of what he said.

To answer your question, I'm on this forum and I agree with Mr. Bush
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So what?

:lol:
 
dpcal said:
“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.”

I can't see what the problem is. I don't claim to have any great economic insights, and there may be a another way to achieve a 4% growth rate, other than working more hours. But a sustained 4% growth rate over 5-6 years would dramatically increase government revenues and improve the finances of at least those putting in the longer hours. Clearly those people with larger paychecks will increase their demand and create additional employment opportunities for those currently without work. Yes I would prefer that the 4% growth rate could be achieved primarily by employing those currently seeking work, but I don't know how that would happen and I haven't heard of anything. Although DOA in either party, a good hard look at "free trade" might do wonders to increase employment and market driven wage increases. Before the long partisan knives get drawn, I fully recognize that a large portion of our society is working at jobs with wages so low that even after 40 hours, they may not have made it to poverty level, and don't have any benefits. But that's something else entirely.
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The central problem is that Jeb's comment belies a childish understanding of the economy.

First it shows a complete disconnect from the realities of the modern w. The most productive people are already maxxed out. We may only be paid for 40hrs a week, but 60 is a better average and 80 isn't uncommon. We also don't take much vacation even though we're entitled to it, mostly because it's impossible to take more time off and finish what we need to do.

Second, it shows a complete inability to do simple math. If your "plan" expects to generate 4% growth as far as the eye can see, would you not also have to put in longer and longer hours... also as far as the eye can see? Increasing the number of hours everyone works would presumably only get you a one time increase in productivity. Hours worked does not compound like interest.

Third, it ignores history. When has any country ever brute forced itself into economic growth? Countries grow in productivity because either its workforce grows or its workforce becomes more efficient.

Fourth, it completely misses the roadblocks for growth. Companies are sitting on some absurd number of trillions of dollars in unused capital. The reason they don't grow is the same reason that small businesses don't hire themselves into success. Produce as much as you like, but you only make money on the things you actually sell. The current limit to economic growth isn't a lack productivity, it's demand.

Fifth, it's completely tone deaf. The problem with our country is that we don't work hard enough? Please. Live in the real world for a little Mr Bush and then let us know what you think.

Seriously.... Jeb's comment is dumber than Romney's 47%. At least you understood where Romney was coming from.
 
tres borrachos said:
Where did he make any implications that he was talking about you, people who already work long hours, or working more than double the normal work week? And you worked an average of 42 hour work weeks.
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Where are you going to get the biggest productivity bump? Do you think that's going to come from uneducated workers making minimum wages flipping burgers? Do you think our economy would grow at 4% because we flip twice as many burgers?

The only way that increasing the number of hours that people work would have a meaningful impact on the productivity of our economy is if you're increasing the hours of the people who are the most productive. And those people are already working flat out because there aren't enough people capable of doing the highly skilled technical jobs. As a result, 60-80hr work weeks are the norm with almost no vacation.
 
CanadaJohn said:
I thought you claimed Jeb Bush would never make it to the White House?

Only someone terrified that Jeb Bush will be the next President would post such blatant misrepresentations of what he said.

To answer your question,
I'm on this forum and I agree with Mr. Bush
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You're not a U.S. citizen, you're a Canuck. Jeb Bush wasn't talking about you.
 
shrubnose said:
Today, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who as of-late has gone relatively gaffe-free, uttered a phrase that may not go over too well with the constituency he wishes to reach.

Read the article here: http://new.yahoo.com/jeb-bush-people-longer-hours-235206730.html

Does anyone on this forum agree with Mr.Bush?

I don't. I'm retired now but most of my life I worked 7-days on, 7-days off, 12 hours a day. That's an 84 hour week. How many more hours does this guy think that I should have worked?

:lol:




"Better days are coming." ~ But not for today's out of touch, running out of time, GOP.
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Umm, that's 84 hours every other week, not 84 hours per week. If it was per week, you wouldn't be working 7 days on and 7 days off. You'd be working 7 days on, then another 7 days on.

You'd actually be working on average 42 hours per week throughout a year...so about an hour over the normal "40 hour" full time.

I'd do that in a hot second to have a week off every other week.

And while I'm not fan of Jeb, but this seems like a massive distortion of what he means. He's clearly talking about workforce participation numbers within the context of the full quote, and part of those numbers are the amount of people working PART TIME. And not because they want only part time, but because that's all they can get. He even talks later about needing to be able to "give people the OPPERTUNITY to work more hours", a suggestion that makes much more sense if he's talking about needing to provide more work hours to those who are part time as opposed to trying to make full time employees HAVE to work more hours.

This is a massive attempt at distorting his words to something other than the most common sense conclussion.
 
Moderator's Warning:
Personal insults and baiting/flaming/trolling stops now, or thread bans and infractions will ensue
 
shrubnose said:
You're not a U.S. citizen, you're a Canuck. Jeb Bush wasn't talking about you.
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And again, when the left can't respond to substance, the xenophobia and/or the personal insults come out. You're in good company today. If I was a leftist, with no argument to make, I'd just respond that you're retired and in the tank for Hillary, so Jeb Bush wasn't talking about or to you either.
 
There is a decent case to be made that having fewer people working...and having the ones working work fewer hours...

...will lead to a greater increase in productivity than increasing hours and workers ever could.

Some social scientists...and some politicians somewhere eventually have to start considering that.
 
Zyphlin said:
And while I'm not fan of Jeb, but this seems like a massive distortion of what he means. He's clearly talking about workforce participation numbers within the context of the full quote, and part of those numbers are the amount of people working PART TIME. And not because they want only part time, but because that's all they can get. He even talks later about needing to be able to "give people the OPPERTUNITY to work more hours", a suggestion that makes much more sense if he's talking about needing to provide more work hours to those who are part time as opposed to trying to make full time employees HAVE to work more hours.

This is a massive attempt at distorting his words to something other than the most common sense conclussion.
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He might have meant it but that's not what he actually said. He didn't actually say anything like that.

I do find it funny that the party that made "You didn't build that" into a national election issue is whining about taking quotes out of context. What's good for the goose and all that.
 
JasperL said:
I do find it funny that the party that made "You didn't build that" into a national election issue is whining about taking quotes out of context. What's good for the goose and all that.
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You realize the exact same thing can be said for the party that defend it with "Ignore what he said, look at it in the context of what he meant" into a defense is now ignoring context and trying to build an issue out of this?
 
Bernie Sanders Obliterates Jeb Bush For Telling Workers To Work Longer Hours

Sanders replied to Bush’s comments in a statement, “Unfortunately,” Sanders said, “Gov. Bush does not seem to understand what is happening in our economy today. The sad truth is that because the middle class has declined over the last 40 years, while almost all new income and wealth have gone to the people on top, Americans already work the longest hours of any people in the western industrialized world. In fact, 80 percent of working men work longer than 40 hours a week. What we need now is an economy that provides decent wages and income for the middle class, not demands that people work even longer hours than they currently do.”​

Can't wait till the debates
 
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“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.”
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I think he meant the underemployed, too.



The French might be doing away with their 35 hour work week because...it's not working...

"..According to the Times, the shorter working week hasn’t kept unemployment down — which is at 10.2 percent in France — and might even have led to the rise in part-time contracts, which employers increasingly use to avoid having to pay full-time staff overtime..."

France Considers Scrapping Its 35-Hour Working Week


Instead of a 40 hour work week some US companies use a 39 hour work week to avoid paying overtime and benefits to full time employees, too.
 
shrubnose said:
Today, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who as of-late has gone relatively gaffe-free, uttered a phrase that may not go over too well with the constituency he wishes to reach.

Read the article here: http://new.yahoo.com/jeb-bush-people-longer-hours-235206730.html

Does anyone on this forum agree with Mr.Bush?

I don't. I'm retired now but most of my life I worked 7-days on, 7-days off, 12 hours a day. That's an 84 hour week. How many more hours does this guy think that I should have worked?

:lol:




"Better days are coming." ~ But not for today's out of touch, running out of time, GOP.
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How does that work? 12 hours 7 days then 7 days 0 hours? That would be 42 hours a week. That is good, but not that much too much.

But Americans actually work quite a bit. I also do not think the comment very good.
 
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Zyphlin said:
You realize the exact same thing can be said for the party that defend it with "Ignore what he said, look at it in the context of what he meant" into a defense is now ignoring context and trying to build an issue out of this?
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True enough. We'll see how far democrats push this line. My guess is in a week this 'gaffe' will be forgotten. "You didn't build that" was around for years, although the central point of that quote is certainly as self evident as Bush's alleged point, which I suspect he did mean (i.e. more full time, more people working, not that 40 hour week workers should work 50....)
 
CanadaJohn said:
And again, when the left can't respond to substance, the xenophobia and/or the personal insults come out. You're in good company today. If I was a leftist, with no argument to make, I'd just respond that you're retired and in the tank for Hillary, so Jeb Bush wasn't talking about or to you either.
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None of that changes the fact that Jeb Bush wasn't talking to you.

How is calling a Canuck a Canuck an insult?
 
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