With slogans of "Workers of the world--Relax!!!" and "Alarm clocks kill dreams", the Work Less Party is set to field at least three candidates in the next British Columbia election. It should come as no surprise that a political party that advocates working less should first take hold in B.C., the Canadian equivalent of La-La land that is often referred to as British California.
The major plank of the WL (perhaps they should be called "willies") is to bring in a 4-day, 32 hour work week. The party wants to go back to the heady days of the 1950s when robotics were all the rage and people were looking forward to the time when machines took over and the population would have more leisure time. But as the Work Less Party points out, those days never came. We are now all working more while real incomes have declined since the days when a carefree Beaver Cleaver romped happily through the streets of Mayfield.
But not all of the Work Less Party's policies are from the 1950s. According to the party's platform, it is all this work that is responsible for pollution and the destruction of the planet. Working also leads to social decay and too much competition. The WL wants to replace competition with co-operation (where have we heard that before?). Other policies include a greater participation in the arts, as if that is even possible, as well as a tax on luxury goods that pollute. That last policy is a downer--who wants more time off from work if they can't afford a pollution-causing SUV to drive around in? |