Jeremy Corbyn's Four-Day Week Is Not Such a Bad Idea
Cutting working hours does little to increase employment, but there’s evidence that it might help improve Britain’s woeful productivity.
Doing Keynes proud.
Photographer: Bloomberg/BloombergYou can’t accuse the U.K.’s opposition Labour party of being dull on economics. Since Jeremy Corbyn became leader in 2015 and picked John McDonnell – an avowed socialist – as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, a long list of quirky ideas has issued forth.
Labour is thinking about re-nationalizing the country’s rail, energy and water industries, changing the remit of the Bank of England to include a productivity target, and introducing a universal basic income. And now it’s toying with a four-day work week for lucky Brits. Robert Skidelsky, an economic historian and biographer of John Maynard Keynes, is putting together a report on the subject that’s due in July. McDonnell is interested and may end up making it official party policy.