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News from across Europe

I had to revisit this: a 4 day work week already exists in Toronto!

Sunflower Kitchens in central Scarborough does a 4 day work week for at least some of their employees. They have been for at least two or three years now (if not longer).

Also, why is a 6hour work day any good? That cuts weekly hours down to 30 which is rather low, even for someone like me who rarely works 40 hours in a week.
A lot of people couldn't survive in this town on too low an income due to less hours at work.

I'm all about the 4 day work week of 35 hours. ?

Studies show a significant drop-off in productivity and an increase in human error when going past hour six in a day.

That's why that idea has some merit in the longer term.

Reducing the work week to 30 hours would require upward movement of per hour compensation; though for high-income earners, that movement need not guarantee their full current pay.

The challenge with a 4-day week, is at that at 8 hours, it too cuts deeply in take home pay for hourly staff to 32-hours.

If you add .5 hours to each work day, you get a 34-hour week, add one hour (9-hour day) you get a 36-hour week.

The challenge there is both that these would likely be low-productivity hours; and that they don't fit neatly into a 24-hour cycle for any work that is ongoing through the day (hospitals, emergency services, transit etc., as well as some factories)

4-day weeks also don't fit neatly into a business or life cycle. That's unless you intend no work to get done 3-days per week, its likely, that a 4-day week would mean 4 days on, 4 days off. That means no more weekends because the days of the week worked would change each week.

Citations:



That said there are other studies that show a 4-day also has benefits; though this appears to study salaried workers judged on output (office jobs) as opposed to those who need to be physically present.


 
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Interesting.

So at our company we're actually going to a Monday-Thursday work week. Probably 9-10 hours/day. Some jokers at our company are actually trying to make this into a money-making venture by claiming they will work 4 12-hour days every week.....have at it, lads!
At our company we've notice an increase in error and loss of productivity due to fatigue at about 9-10 hours so from that perspective, it should work out.
Fridays are just closed, our industry isn't 24hours a day (it's barely 10 hours a day most of the time).
In fact, a lot of my industry is pretty well closed Friday afternoons most of the year anyway and shuts down at Christmas for two weeks.

The reason it's more productive to run a 4 day week as opposed to a 6 hour day is because of time used each day for set up and tear down. The shorter your day, the more of it is used unproductively. A longer day is more productive in this sense but necessitates a shorter work week.

Mind you, I'm also aiming for semi-retirement at the age of 45 (or sooner, universe willing!) as a necessity to a happy and fulfilling life.

I hope that in the near future more workers are able to enjoy unorthodox and easier working lives.

Then again, I've worked very hard to get to this point. ? No one should just have this handed to them, the lazy bastards. :p
 
French prime minister makes concession to pension protest

Edouard Philippe said he is ready to withdraw a proposal to raise the retirement age to 64 in a compromise with striking trade unions. The reform has triggered monthlong nationwide protests.


The French have legitimate grievances with some of the current reform package being pushed by Macron et al.

Many are aimed at reducing job security and reducing labour wages, benefits and bargaining power.

That said, the French retirement age is too low, and even at 64 would make no sense.

But the key to making such a change work is to show that the savings produced by such a move won't go to the rich or to some general government or business coffer.

They need to propose raising the age and the benefit (reinvesting the savings), and if, at some point the benefit reaches a logical extreme then to give those savings back to low and lower-middle income earners through tax reduction or other means.

The problem w/the current scheme has been it appears to be a lopsided give back from the middle class and lower income earners to business and the rich.
 
Germany agrees plan to phase out coal power by 2038

The German government and regional leaders have agreed on a plan to phase out coal-fired power stations by 2038, involving compensation of about €40bn (£34bn; $45bn).

 
Germany confirms Trump made trade threat to Europe over Iran policy

Defence minister says Trump threatened to impose 25% tariff on European cars

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Thu 16 Jan 2020 16.54 GMT

The US threatened to impose 25% tariffs on cars to push Europeans to initiate proceedings against Iran for violating the nuclear deal, the German defence minister has confirmed.

 
Germany confirms Trump made trade threat to Europe over Iran policy

Defence minister says Trump threatened to impose 25% tariff on European cars

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Thu 16 Jan 2020 16.54 GMT

The US threatened to impose 25% tariffs on cars to push Europeans to initiate proceedings against Iran for violating the nuclear deal, the German defence minister has confirmed.


Can't they just continue disassembling the cars and reassembling them in the US as is (or was?) done with my model of Mercedes?...I kid you not....built in Spain, shipped to Canada direct.
Built in Spain, disassembled, shipped to US, reassembled. To avoid tariffs from the 70s.
 
Overtourism in Europe's historic cities sparks backlash

Angry protests from residents in popular areas force city hall officials to take action

Jon Henley and Guardian correspondents
Sat 25 Jan 2020 05.00 GMT

Across Europe, historic cities are buckling. Mass tourism, encouraged by cash-hungry councils after the 2008 crash and fuelled by the explosion of cheap flights and online room rentals, has become a monster. The backlash, however, has begun.

In the past decade, the number of low-cost airline seats available each year in Europe has risen by more than 10% annually, more than doubling to more than 500m.

 
Overtourism in Europe's historic cities sparks backlash

Angry protests from residents in popular areas force city hall officials to take action

Jon Henley and Guardian correspondents
Sat 25 Jan 2020 05.00 GMT

Across Europe, historic cities are buckling. Mass tourism, encouraged by cash-hungry councils after the 2008 crash and fuelled by the explosion of cheap flights and online room rentals, has become a monster. The backlash, however, has begun.

In the past decade, the number of low-cost airline seats available each year in Europe has risen by more than 10% annually, more than doubling to more than 500m.


Budapest has a similar problem. They have so many visitors from the rest of Europe that they are having issues handling them.

I went to Budapest in 1996 when it was a post-communist wasteland, revisited it in 2006 before joining the EU, then went back in 2008. Back then there were far fewer people in the city but since joining the EU, Budapest as been revitalized. What was once the armpit of Central Europe has tossed off the shackles of communism and become known for its historical architecture and beautiful scenery.

As more and more tourists and students come to Budapest they are having crowding issues in the Jewish Quarter, along the Danube Embankment, the castle district and along Andrassy Ut.

Simply put, Budapest along with many historical European cities (Vienna, Prague, Warsaw to name a few) were never designed for millions of people to come and go.
 
Budapest has a similar problem. They have so many visitors from the rest of Europe that they are having issues handling them.

I went to Budapest in 1996 when it was a post-communist wasteland, revisited it in 2006 before joining the EU, then went back in 2008. Back then there were far fewer people in the city but since joining the EU, Budapest as been revitalized. What was once the armpit of Central Europe has tossed off the shackles of communism and become known for its historical architecture and beautiful scenery.

As more and more tourists and students come to Budapest they are having crowding issues in the Jewish Quarter, along the Danube Embankment, the castle district and along Andrassy Ut.

Simply put, Budapest along with many historical European cities (Vienna, Prague, Warsaw to name a few) were never designed for millions of people to come and go.

I haven't been to Budapest before but it's on my list of places I'm interested to check out someday. Heard from some friends that Lisbon and various places in Croatia have also experienced similar explosions in tourism.

Amsterdam and Berlin were the exact same way when I visited several years ago. And that was during random non-peak travel season times during the year. Although they are more built to accommodate the mass tourism numbers.

Iceland is an interesting exception from my time visiting. Tourists were literally everywhere but majority of the attractions are scattered and natural landscape based instead of urban. However for Iceland, they're a country that relies on tourism as a primary economic engine more than others.

One of my favourites cities visited, Hamburg was pleasantly under-touristy and a joy to explore. Same goes for Rotterdam and Groningen in the Netherlands along with Bremen and Lübeck in Germany.
 
I haven't been to Budapest before but it's on my list of places I'm interested to check out someday. Heard from some friends that Lisbon and various places in Croatia have also experienced similar explosions in tourism.

Amsterdam and Berlin were the exact same way when I visited several years ago. And that was during random non-peak travel season times during the year. Although they are more built to accommodate the mass tourism numbers.

Iceland is an interesting exception from my time visiting. Tourists were literally everywhere but majority of the attractions are scattered and natural landscape based instead of urban. However for Iceland, they're a country that relies on tourism as a primary economic engine more than others.

One of my favourites cities visited, Hamburg was pleasantly under-touristy and a joy to explore. Same goes for Rotterdam and Groningen in the Netherlands along with Bremen and Lübeck in Germany.
For Poland, there's Krakow and Wroclaw.
 
Simply put, Budapest along with many historical European cities (Vienna, Prague, Warsaw to name a few) were never designed for millions of people to come and go.

I can attest....Praha has been laid waste by the tourism industry. I hate it. I don't spend any time there....I just transit through. It's not just the masses of people in the centre, it's the massive scam industry going on and the price gouging. I mean, prices there can be quadruple of what they are anywhere else in the country. It's pretty sad.
 
One of my favourites cities visited, Hamburg was pleasantly under-touristy and a joy to explore. Same goes for Rotterdam and Groningen in the Netherlands along with Bremen and Lübeck in Germany.

I loved Frankfurt (Main) for this reason! Saw more crackheads shooting up in the street than I did tourists! There were a fair number of migrants though which was always an interesting interaction, trying to speak to random Africans in a mix of busted English and French. Frankfurters approached me assuming I was a local! Which was an absolute joy as I try to blend in with the locals when I travel in Europe.
Of cours, this is probably the case for a lot of these German cities because they were absolutely destroyed by bombing at the end of WW2 and have almost none of the old buildings that most of Europe does. It was actually quite jarring to experience. The whole place is a massive reminder of the war.
 
I loved Frankfurt (Main) for this reason! Saw more crackheads shooting up in the street than I did tourists! There were a fair number of migrants though which was always an interesting interaction, trying to speak to random Africans in a mix of busted English and French. Frankfurters approached me assuming I was a local! Which was an absolute joy as I try to blend in with the locals when I travel in Europe.
Of cours, this is probably the case for a lot of these German cities because they were absolutely destroyed by bombing at the end of WW2 and have almost none of the old buildings that most of Europe does. It was actually quite jarring to experience. The whole place is a massive reminder of the war.

I think you'd enjoy the St. Pauli district in Hamburg, which is also where the Reeperbahn is. ;)

Although there was some evidently newer areas into the city, Hamburg has a fair amount of their historical architecture stock still in tact. From the Rathaus (city hall), Speicherstadt (warehouse on the water district), central train station, and even just buildings along the Inner Alster lake, etc.

Yep blending in with locals is the experience I typically go for in Europe. Which is why I've avoided the usual Rome, Barcelona, Paris type destinations.

Lake Bled in Slovenia is high up there on my list for places I hope to check out in the future:

 
Italy's 'Sardines' movement presents ethical counter to far right

Italians have started voting in regional elections; the center-left Democratic Party hopes to benefit from the rise of a new anti-populist movement. DW looks at how the Sardines began and where they can go from here.

 
Oh, I know I'd enjoy St Pauli!

I was actually supposed to go visit a friend who was living in Hamburg at the time I was in Frankfurt but ended up not going because I had to get my ass to a cousin's wedding in Czechia.
 

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