Working Harder Isn't Working: A Detailed Plan for Implementing a Four-Day Workweek in Canada

Lin Good, formerly an associate librarian at Queen’s University, is
currently a consultant.

The provocative arguments put forth in this book are convincing and easy
to follow—and they will undoubtedly be contradicted by most of the
economists who comment continually on Canada’s economic crisis.

In the 1980s, Bruce O’Hara was a professional counsellor who noticed
that his clients fell into two groups. Some were unemployed and
gradually losing their vitality and sense of self-worth; others worked
many hours, often were married to spouses who worked equally hard, and
had no time or energy to spare for anything else.

This was not what the pundits had predicted in the 1950s and 1960ss
when the advent of technology was expected to generate more wealth with
less effort. Futurists then assumed that our ability to produce more
with fewer hours of labor would result in a shorter workweek for a large
workforce. Our main concern was supposed to be educating ourselves for
increased leisure.

One part of this forecast came true: the average Canadian worker today
produces twice as much per hour as in the 1950s. But the other rosy
predictions have not materialized. Instead, we have a large debt load,
high unemployment among some groups, excessive hours worked by others,
and an ever-increasing gap between the rich and the poor.

This does not help the national economy, because, as O’Hara states,
“rich people make lousy consumers.” A large sum spread among 1000
employees will lead to the workers buying cars, homes, televisions,
groceries, and haircuts. This will in turn generate business for
factories, farms, and stores. The same sum given to one rich corporate
owner will generate some purchases, but more likely will result in
financial investments that do not translate into consumer goods or jobs.

The usual rebuttal to that argument is that money in the hands of the
very wealthy “trickles down” to the rest of the population
eventually. At present this does not seem to be occurring here, just as
it did not in the U.S. in the Reagan years.

Eric Kierans is cited as saying that if you want to understand why
things are as they are you must ask “Who does it serve?” In this
detailed and closely reasoned examination of the past 30 years, O’Hara
answers that question with specific detail covering education, health
care, social programs and the rest, making assertions that are bound to
be unacceptable to most major institutions in Canada. He suggests that
the demand for increasingly high qualifications (e.g., a Ph.D. instead
of a B.A.) is a way of controlling oversupply in certain professions,
resulting in no greater skill in the work performed, and that the
current open system of global trade allows big corporations to hide
their profits wherever taxes are lowest.

On the premise that our system should serve society as a whole and not
just a few, O’Hara concludes by outlining how to fix it, from a
shorter workweek to a community-based democracy. He does not pretend
that it will be easy, and many of his principles seem naively
idealistic. To support his persuasive prose, O’Hara gives verifiable
notes and sources for each chapter.