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In today’s edition:
WpGet the full experience.Choose your planArrowRight- Give us a 32-hour workweek, and let AI help
- Trump’s old VP rebuffs him, so who gets on the ticket now?
- A profile in courage in the fight against chronic fatigue syndrome
Life of a little more leisure
God, imagine a 30-hour workweek! A thing of the utopian future, right? With Jetsonesque robots completing huge chunks of our work for us so we can kick back and enjoy the latest entertainment?
Well, what if I told you the Senate passed a bill to establish such a workweek back when the latest entertainment was whatever FDR had on his mind for that night’s fireside chat?
Sen. Bernie Sanders and United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain write in an op-ed that the 1933 Senate legislation eventually (under pressure from corporate America) turned into the formalized 40-hour workweek established in 1940.
“Unbelievably, 84 years later, despite massive growth in technology and worker productivity,” they say, “nothing has changed.” So bring on the 32-hour workweek!
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Sanders and Fain’s piece is packed with stats that’ll make you shake your standing desk with rage. The highlights:
- American workers’ productivity is up 400 percent since the 1940s.
- The average worker makes about $50 less a week, adjusting for inflation, than they would have 50 years ago.
- And that worker logs 470 more hours of work a year than their counterpart in Germany, which is, like, stereotypically industrious!
Sanders and Fain argue that Americans have earned the right to work fewer hours for the same pay. And hey, executives? Take a look at the studies showing that a shorter week could improve productivity even more.
But what of those Jetsonian bots doing our work? Once they get smart enough, won’t they replace us entirely?
Eduardo Porter reviews a bunch of research and writes that artificial intelligence doesn’t have to destroy jobs but, rather, can empower the working class.
Take the example of customer support agents, often invoked as the first obsolescence of an AI revolution: Eduardo writes that one study showed huge productivity gains when these human agents worked side by side with AI assistants.
2024’s final casting call
As the cast for “2020: The Sequel” rounds out, with the original leads set to reprise their roles despite audience distaste, only a few slots remain uncast.
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Chief among these is the VP slot on the Republican ticket, and we know whom that’s not going to: Mike Pence loudly announced he has no plans to endorse his former boss. Jen Rubin analyzes the “unprecedented rebuff” coming from Pence and other former top advisers, urging them to go further in fulfilling their “duty to warn” of Donald Trump’s danger to the country.
So who takes over the role? Ted Johnson writes that the most promising contenders are “auditioning by becoming partisan caricatures that address specific polling margins.” He runs through Trump’s suite of options — including the only one he says could win over the “still-undecideds” whom Trump needs.
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Then, of course, there’s the handful of extras who think they’re the real stars of the show: the third-party candidates. In Alexi McCammond’s latest edition of the Prompt 2024 newsletter (which you can sign up for here), she, Perry Bacon and Karen Tumulty discuss whether those bonus candidates will help or hurt President Biden.
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Karen reports on Team Trump’s thinking that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his ilk harm Biden’s chances, but she is looking at the latest polling and isn’t so sure.
Chaser: In his own column, Perry writes that voters of color are shifting right. Does that mean Democrats are doomed?
Less politics
Myalgic encephalomyelitis chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME/CFS, is just awful. If you know anyone living with the illness, you know how much it can interfere with daily life — and how frustrating it is that “pushing through” often makes symptoms much worse. Then add in the isolation that comes with the disease being so little studied, despite it affecting 3 million Americans.
Michelle, identified by her middle name only, is one of them, and Leana Wen chronicles her experience with the disease, from onset to 18-month debilitation to participating in one of the few studies on ME/CFS.
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It’s this last part that Leana focuses on, and for good reason; read and you’ll see the selfless bravery the study required of Michelle.
Chaser: Last week, Leana reviewed the landmark report that resulted from the study, including its implications for sufferers of long covid.
Smartest, fastest
- Outlawing abortion is just the start for some conservative judges, Ruth Marcus writes. Birth control is next.
- The Editorial Board describes worsening oppression in Azerbaijan and calls for the release of imprisoned journalists and dissidents.
- Jim Geraghty, writing from Kyiv, passes on the message desperate Ukrainians have for the House speaker holding up aid.
It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … The Bye-Ku.
Hours contorted
Into Trumpy shape grow long
Give veeps briefer weeks
***
Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. See you tomorrow!
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You’re reading the Today’s Opinions newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox.
In today’s edition:
God, imagine a 30-hour workweek! A thing of the utopian future, right? With Jetsonesque robots completing huge chunks of our work for us so we can kick back and enjoy the latest entertainment?
Well, what if I told you the Senate passed a bill to establish such a workweek back when the latest entertainment was whatever FDR had on his mind for that night’s fireside chat?
Sen. Bernie Sanders and United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain write in an op-ed that the 1933 Senate legislation eventually (under pressure from corporate America) turned into the formalized 40-hour workweek established in 1940.
“Unbelievably, 84 years later, despite massive growth in technology and worker productivity,” they say, “nothing has changed.” So bring on the 32-hour workweek!
Sanders and Fain’s piece is packed with stats that’ll make you shake your standing desk with rage. The highlights:
Sanders and Fain argue that Americans have earned the right to work fewer hours for the same pay. And hey, executives? Take a look at the studies showing that a shorter week could improve productivity even more.
But what of those Jetsonian bots doing our work? Once they get smart enough, won’t they replace us entirely?
Eduardo Porter reviews a bunch of research and writes that artificial intelligence doesn’t have to destroy jobs but, rather, can empower the working class.
Take the example of customer support agents, often invoked as the first obsolescence of an AI revolution: Eduardo writes that one study showed huge productivity gains when these human agents worked side by side with AI assistants.
As the cast for “2020: The Sequel” rounds out, with the original leads set to reprise their roles despite audience distaste, only a few slots remain uncast.
Chief among these is the VP slot on the Republican ticket, and we know whom that’s not going to: Mike Pence loudly announced he has no plans to endorse his former boss. Jen Rubin analyzes the “unprecedented rebuff” coming from Pence and other former top advisers, urging them to go further in fulfilling their “duty to warn” of Donald Trump’s danger to the country.
So who takes over the role? Ted Johnson writes that the most promising contenders are “auditioning by becoming partisan caricatures that address specific polling margins.” He runs through Trump’s suite of options — including the only one he says could win over the “still-undecideds” whom Trump needs.
Then, of course, there’s the handful of extras who think they’re the real stars of the show: the third-party candidates. In Alexi McCammond’s latest edition of the Prompt 2024 newsletter (which you can sign up for here), she, Perry Bacon and Karen Tumulty discuss whether those bonus candidates will help or hurt President Biden.
Karen reports on Team Trump’s thinking that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his ilk harm Biden’s chances, but she is looking at the latest polling and isn’t so sure.
Chaser: In his own column, Perry writes that voters of color are shifting right. Does that mean Democrats are doomed?
Myalgic encephalomyelitis chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME/CFS, is just awful. If you know anyone living with the illness, you know how much it can interfere with daily life — and how frustrating it is that “pushing through” often makes symptoms much worse. Then add in the isolation that comes with the disease being so little studied, despite it affecting 3 million Americans.
Michelle, identified by her middle name only, is one of them, and Leana Wen chronicles her experience with the disease, from onset to 18-month debilitation to participating in one of the few studies on ME/CFS.
It’s this last part that Leana focuses on, and for good reason; read and you’ll see the selfless bravery the study required of Michelle.
Chaser: Last week, Leana reviewed the landmark report that resulted from the study, including its implications for sufferers of long covid.
It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … The Bye-Ku.
Hours contorted
Into Trumpy shape grow long
Give veeps briefer weeks
***
Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. See you tomorrow!
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