Slow Down 13

[controlnovice]

http://www.slowfood.com

I am all for the concept, and my wife and I have been trying out best to follow this path, but I highly question the productivity numbers in the email.

There has been a huge growth industry in eating healthy (more than just dieting) and organic foods in the past 10 years in the States.

______________________________________________________________________________
This is normally the space where people post something insightful.

 

[SomptingGuy]

There has been a huge growth industry in eating healthy (more than just dieting) and organic foods in the past 10 years in the States.

... but it's only a matter of time before "healthy" and "organic" foods are made better by covering them in plastic cheese.

 

[JStephen]

Sounds like a fair bit of hooey to me, actually.

My dad spent several years in Germany back in the late 50's and early 60's. I mentioned to him about the longer vacations and his response was "Yes, but when they work, they work longer hours". So have things perhaps changed in the last 40 years?

My dad first went there in 1952, just 7 years after WW II was over. His observation was that there was very little visible damage remaining in Germany, but that France still had unrepaired damage from the first world war. So maybe the whole continent doesn't think quite alike.

I seem to recall the new Airbus 380 is behind schedule and in danger of dragging the company under. So maybe slow is not good all the time.

I recall that some of the great technological advances of the last century were made by both sides during WW II, with a tremendous pressure to hurry.

I recall recently reading of a French train setting a new speed record. Simply the existence of high-speed trains contradicts the universal "slow down" mentality.

I'm all in favor of taking life easy to the extent that one can manage it, but it seems a bit presumptive to try to write that up into a national or continental philosophy.

 

[jmw]

In the old days, the days of cotton mills in the UK, mill workers could work 14 hour days or more and one mill owner measured the workers performance and discovered that some workers would walk as much as 20 miles a day tending the looms.
He then reduced the working hours (before the government introduced legislation and to fewer hours than the legislation limited).
As a result of this action the productivity and profitability of his operation improved and his workers were much healthier and happier.
This type of study has many times produced similar results and by extrapolating the data I have realised that I am at my most productive when I do no work at all.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[KENAT]

I seem to recall seeing/hearing somewhere that Volvo was actually struggling a little and that Ford were considering divesting themselves of it.

If it's true doesn't it start to blow some of the above out of the water?

As regards the parking thing, when I started here I’d always do something similar.

Our main parking lot is relatively small for the number of staff and a lot of the spaces are only for ‘compact’ cars. Even then there isn’t a lot of room and I’ve had to climb in from the passenger side before now. I didn’t park in the farthest space but I did try to park on the very end of a row and well across, right against the far curb/line so as to leave plenty of room for the next guy and so on down the row. I quite doing it and started parking at the front near the entrance because the bushes next to the curb got overgrown and it was scratching up my car door & making egress difficult. I noticed today that they’ve removed the offending bush and trimmed the others so I parked there, and the email above has inspired me to keep doing so.

In principle it sounds good but taken to the ultimate extreme probably wouldn't work.

 

[TheTick]

Ussuri:
I was agreeing with you. I meant that I didn't think Nokia would appreciate being called "Swedish".

 

[dvd]

I'm still waiting for the Swedes to decide to produce the P1800 again; I'd liked to see the 544 again, also. I can see that decision has taken much more than two years to reach. But I am patient.

 

[Ussuri]

Apologies, Tick, I thought you were 'nitpicking' my statement.

It all becomes clear now. Even with the 'emoticons' just goes to show how text can be misinterpreted.

 

[epoisses]

@gfbotha
I did not want to burn your post down...
I do agree with the general idea but when you mentioned French working hours it reminded me of a certain category of French workers (if you can call them that way) that make me sick, between two strikes, 3 sick days and 4 holidays, they complain harder than they work... and then they ask the government to protect their jobs against the Chinese... and in this presidential election time (fingers crossed for Sunday!) they get ample attention from all the different socialist, green, anti-liberal, communist and trotzkist (I wish I were joking) candidates who promise them more than would ever be possible in their wildest dreams...
Sorry it must be election fever.
Otherwise I have nothing against a "slow down" if it's a 1.5 hour lunch on a terrass in the sun with a bottle of wine on the house, as is standard practice in this area.

 

[gfbotha]

Absolutely no problem, epoisses! - I never thought you wanted to.

I just picked up phrases like "the first point YOU made" and "but when YOU mentioned French working hours". Thought I need to point out that I did not write the nice story but simply passed it on (read: no credit). Maybe it was just a language or writing style thing.

As Ussuri said; text can easily be understood the wrong way. BTW, also my home language is not English. And around here we also get sick & tired of too many striking and demands by people not sweating at all!

Cheers

 

[knji]

Nice article...

 

[RAH1234]

In my opinion, the article is simply socialistic propoganda. The author offers no facts, and cites no sources, to support the arguments put forth. The author implies the parking lots in Sweden are always filled from the back row first by citing the parking habits of one anonymous person. While it's a nice emotional appeal, the logic fails.

The article states "They (Sweden), on the other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results." The author attempts to mask the purely emotional appeal with logic. The logic is flawed; "better" is a comparative phrase. The results are better than what? Better than nothing? Better than Ethiopia's results? One is also left to speculate as to what results are being discussed. Productivity, economic growth, quality, etc.?

Individual performance and entrepreneurship are both stifled in the "slow down" culture. How can one ever 'get ahead' in such a system.

The following quotes are from Nima Sanandaji and Tino Sanandaji as published at

http://www.neolibertarian.net/articles/sanandaji_20060414.aspx

..."the Swedish model has been on the decline. Entrepreneurship has declined to an international low. None of the 50 largest Swedish corporations have been started after 1970"

"In a study of 37 developed countries that was conducted in 2002, Sweden was ranked in the 31:st place when it came to entrepreneurial activity and was one of the countries where entrepreneurship had fallen the most between 2000 and 2002. An important contributing factor is that the marginal tax on entrepreneurs is approximately 70 percent and that they are required to pay additional fees to the state, such as when their employees go on sick leave."

"Estimating the true unemployment rate:
Below is a calculation of true unemployment in Sweden. All figures are from the Swedish Statistical Agency (SCB) Labor survey, first quarter 2005, except the number of individuals only on welfare, which have been taken from Tax researcher Dane Nordlings homepage. The number on Sick Leave have been adjusted for the number of working hours.

Population 16-64 - -- - - 5.755.000

Not in labor force - - - - - - 1.365.000
Early retired - - - - - - - - - (494.000)
Seek work - - - - - - - - - - - (150.000)
Get Welfare - - - - - - - - - - (84.000)

Labor Force - - - - - - - - - 4.391.000
Unemployed (5.6 %) - - - - - (245.000)
unemply programs - - - - - (130.000)
Employed in Real job - - - - 4.016.000
Absent from work - - - - - - (554.000)
Of which on Sick leave- - - (216.000)

Actually work - - - - - - - 3.469.000
Some 4.0 million (70 percent of adult population) are in productive activity rate, while 1.2 million (20 percent of adult population) are living of welfare and Health or Unemployment insurance alone. The remaining 10 percent of adult population are supported by the state by other means (such as parents leave and absence from work due to care of sick children)."

 

[wjsd]

Is it just me or does the original post claim Swedens' population to be 2 million? The CIA world factbook estimates the population to be around 9 million. <shrug> Minor point in terms of the message the writer is trying too convey.

The writer paints a pretty picture, with a nice "feel good" read to it. Comparisons of someone else's situation to one's own always leads to quality of life reflections (at least in myself, and from others' posts, apparently other people do this as well)

Interestingly the comments are quite varied and International. I embraced a personal "slow life" mentality years ago. When I work I observe along with co-workers the hilarity of work flow perceptions. Contractors needing everything "Yesterday". Managers simply barking "Hurry Hurry" because that is what they were promoted to do. Americans will continue to be driven like rats in a mill, with no end in sight. Some people love it, some people hate it. Just depends what kind of rat you are. Engineering is a a pretty good way to go if you don't like being driven too hard. Get in there, do the work, and go home. If you are lucky, the company you work for is family oriented.

An individual in US can, though, take control of their life if they wish too. An individual can live the "Swedish" lifestyle in America if they choose, it just depends on your career path. Most couples are driven by the bills that come due each month, and so play the "game" to meet expenses. Observing this willing devotion to accept the rat race can only mean most Americans' don't want to have the "Slow Growth" society that is touted in the OP. Americans like rushing around with a Starbucks in one hand and cel phone in the other. I just laugh at those people and avoid them.

The American system is certainly on a decline though. The Frontier Spirit is diluted and continuing that trend, leaving shadows of former American Ingenuity and Work Ethic. American quality of life is decreasing.

 

[ubrben]

>>>Twoballcane (Mechanical)
17 Apr 07 10:22

Do you reaaly work 20 to 30 hrs a week?

I work a 37.5 hour week. i.e. I come in at 7.30 and leave at 3.30 every day and take 0.5hours for lunch. I have 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays.

I'm home by 4pm. I can then go to the gym or read a book or do my garden. I get 8 hours sleep a night - at least.

The approach to hours and holiday in the US confuses the hell out of me. If your economy was booming and your currency wasn't so weak I'd maybe buy into all this hard working idea.

The reality is that working hard (i.e. long hours, minimal holiday) is no more efficient than working smart and having time and space to be someone other than your work self for at least some of the time.

Ben