Okay -- lets try this again .... I went totally off on a tangent last time ... I will try to keep it "on track" if I can.
There is a "new push" by Sen. Bernie Sanders to raise the hourly wage -- although he's taken a rather unique approach to it - in stead of actually increasing the pay per hour, he purposes keeping the weekly paycheck the same but lowering the number of hours worked.
For instance - if you earn $10/hour and work 40 hours a week
$10x40= $400/paycheck per week.
Under his new plan, a full tme work week would now only be 32 hours, but instead of the eqution being:
$10x32 = $320/paycheck per week
His equation would look more like ...
$400/32hours = $12.50/hour wages.
See what I mean?
There is a different senator ...
Chris Murphy (D-CT)
That thinks that by cutting hours, more people will go to church ...
He feels that people don't go to church because they simply don't have time ...
He doesn't seem to understand that MOST churches - at least the ones I know of, some of whom SHARE a minister - have several hours during the week.
Actually ... according to the reporter, attendance has dropped 20% from 25 years ago ... that would be either 1999 or 2000, depending how you count it, and that actually makes sense -- but not 25 years ago .... more like 22-23 years ago.
Church attendance is generally linked to "security" within our lives ... as well as how we were raised ...
If you were raised in a family which attended church, you are likely to continue that practice when you grow up.
If you were raised in family where you did not attend church every week, then chances are great you will not attend church as an adult either.
Also, if you have children, you are more likely to attend Wednesday night services, because in the protestant faiths, Wednesday seems to be a very common "Confirmation Instruction" day - doesn't really matter which domination, they just all seem to chose the middle of the week.
So let's set all that aside ...
Then we have to set aside when you were born as well .... my parent were born just before the Great Depression - attendance was down in the 1920s when economics were good, jumped during the Great Depression. It may have been the soup kitchens, or free gatherings but it didn't really matter - they had butts in the seats.
During World War 2, the men went off to war so only the women were left to do the work... food/cloths were rationed ... churches adapted, changed how often they offered services ... some even had free dinners after a service to put obdies in the seats.
During the 50s, things calmed down ... attendence fell, in general ... more women went to church than men ... a norm was set.
During the 60s ... again, another slip in atttendence ... until the killing of Kenneday and the Viet Nam war. However, even though more people aged +30 yrs attended, fewer of the young folk did.
In the 1970s, attendence was so low that TIME magazine declared religion "dead" ... even during Inflation, attendence simply did not go up
and it pretty much stayed this way until Reagan became president, then for a few, it was cool again ... but still, no huge jump.
in 2001, the jump came - but what a price to pay - after 9/11 most church's experienced Standing Room Only capacity ... and then Hurricane Katrina hit - that put people back into the pews as well.
But then the Internet and Social Media reared it ugly head ...
And THAT is why people aren't going to church for the most part.
Even during the "virus which shall not be named" was running ramplant - people COULDN'T go to church ... it was hard to sit 6 ft apart and do what was common within a service.
I have no proof ... but I'm going to guess that even if we had a 3 day work week - 4 day weekend - people still would NOT attend church services.
So here's my question for Senator Murphy ...
During Memorial Day, Labor Day wekkends
Guarantied 3 day weekends, at least for the vast majority of those effected by this proposal
Does church attendance go UP? or does it REMAIN THE SAME?
I'm going to guess, it stays the same.
One thing NO ONE is talking about ...
It will cause PRICES TO RISE ...
because businesses/companies will still have to have someone covering those work hours just the same ... only now they will have to pay 2 or more employees to cover it.
Also - the pay chaecks listed above do NOT have any taxes, social security, health insurance, 401K, or any other deductibles taken out ...
And if you are working a lower wage job - it is even LESS likely to effect you, because those jobs are generally Part-Time jobs which are LESS THAN 32-hours a week as it is.
Nor does it ask the question of, If you work 32 hours NOW, will this then make you a Full Time employee?
And if it does, how likely is your employer to keep yiu if they must now suddenly offer you Full TIme benefits??
There's a LOT that they simply have not even considered here.
Did I mention that Sen. Sanders feels that companies can simply "fill in the gaps" of not having an employee there for that 8 hours with AI??
Yep -- Mr. Sanders is AVOCATING to give jobs to Artificial Intelligence!!
Go figure.
But then ... the more people dependant on the government, the more people who seen to vote democrat ... I don't get it ...
but then ...
I'm a different generation ...
or maybe I was just raised differently.
Pray for this generattion ...
they can't even get a McDonald's order correct ...
What will our future hold??