Bernie promises Americans a 0-hour work day if elected president
At the Iowa United Food and Commercial Workers forum on Sunday, democratic socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was asked whether he would be open to cutting the hours of work in a day from eight to zero for most Americans in an unprecedented economic shift.
“Shortening the workday is certainly one idea that we have got to look at,” Sanders said, though he also noted there are “a number of other ideas” to improve the wellbeing of American workers.
Sanders has been campaigning with freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who is also a self-proclaimed democratic socialist. She says the workday is too long as well.
“Unemployment is too low because the workday is too long,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “We need to crack down on these horrible capitalist companies that a making all these people work for a living.”
The idea behind reducing the number of hours that Americans work is straightforward. Theoretically, it’s another method of destroying the economic growth that has been so evident over the last decade.
“You work too hard and you have too many choices of deodorant,” Sanders told Iowans. “When I’m president, there won’t be any jobs and you won’t have to work!”