Eight Days a Week A feasible and desirable way out of the socioeconomic crisis

(Homo ardens + Homo ludens) + (Homo ludens + Homo ardens)

= 2 x Homo sapiens!
Problems cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness that created them. Albert Einstein "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete". Buckminster Fuller The philosophy of ancient Greece was cerebral and speculative, i.e. almost exclusively metaphysical and descriptive. The theory was not made hard by practical evidence. But from Newton until 1900 science has known the supremacy of the pre-experiment: The laws of nature and theories were formulated based on previously done experiments. So these theories were in essence statistical. But after 1900 began a period of the post-experiment: science starts from intuition and mathematical peculiarities to formulate theories and hypotheses, which are experimentally verified later on, in some cases even decades later - think of the work of Planck, Einstein, Bohr and de Broglie. Hence the following statement of Einstein: A theory can be sanctioned by experiments, but there is no way that leads from the experiments to the formulation of a new theory. J.B. Quintyn, A Cultural Journey Through Biology, Mathematics, Cosmology, Theory of Relativity, Cosmogony, p. 181. It is frightening to see that even in the field of scientific judgment there are already signs of self-immunization. This is apparently a consequence of the massification of science: too many scientists are no longer receptive for new ideas. This process of self-immunization in science could well lead to a shrinking of our philosophical knowledge and heritage. K. Lorenz, Our Last Chance, pp. 151-152.

Subject: A critical analysis of the present financial and socioeconomic crisis. A proposal to make a socioeconomic leap forward for the benefit of the population, the government and the companies all alike. A feasible alternative to the socioeconomic setback that most economists, politicians and businessmen are currently advocating.

TOC
Eight Days a Week A feasible and desirable way out of the socioeconomic crisis ................ 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 3 A lesson from the recent past in order to make the first step in the right direction ............ 6 Lessons from the more remote past when steps were made in the wrong direction ........... 7 Have we learned anything from the past? ......................................................................... 10 The evolution of the use of time and the consequences of this ........................................ 12 The cause of recurrence of financial and economic crises ............................................... 13 Some historical facts to prove this. ................................................................................... 16 Some urgent problems most industrial countries are currently faced with ....................... 19 A complicated problem! (Or just not?) ............................................................................ 20

10 A possible solution: Eight Days a Week........................................................................... 22 11 Even better: Nine days a week .......................................................................................... 29 12 Best: Back to seven days a week! ..................................................................................... 33 13 More equality leads to more happiness for more people .................................................. 37 14 The quaternary sector ........................................................................................................ 40 15 Quod erat demonstrandum: panem et circencem for everyone is the future! ................... 41 16 What can you do: Reach out and touch! ........................................................................... 43 17 Appendix: Information in an economic perspective ......................................................... 47

Introduction

I do not think I have to give you a detailed description of what is going on in the world: the deepest socioeconomic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, which has led to fascism in some countries, and ultimately to the Second World War. And then there are also the ecological problems, terrorism, social turmoil and civil wars in the Middle East and even social turmoil in European Union countries around the Mediterranean Sea, the rising military tension in the world, Here are some other less known items to illustrate the present socioeconomic situation: A survey from 2012 in Belgium has shown that people consider the daily mobility problems around the big agglomeration as the greatest problem, and that working parents would like to find a better balance between their work and quality time with their family. According to another survey from 2013, one out of three employees complains about stress at the work floor, and there are simply not enough high quality and rewarding jobs. In most countries there are just not enough jobs for everyone. Due to the budgetary problems of most governments and local authorities a policy of austerity is imposed on the population, and due to the demographic evolution people are imposed longer working hours per week and the retirement age is increased. This is contradictory! According to study published in September 2013 by Dr. Hans Bloemen, Professor Economy at the University of Amsterdam, people who retire earlier have a higher life expectancy than people who retire at a later age. I think that people who still adhere to Malthusianism will not like this. In Germany there are no minimum wages. People from Romania and Bulgaria work as so-called self-employed laborers for 60 hours a week in the meat industry for a wage of 3 EUROs per hour. They are lodged with 8 persons in one room, without having the right to leave the barracks (the 1930s?). And even German people have to combine two low-paid jobs in order to make both ends meet by the end of the month. In Greece in 2013, illegal Bengal immigrants work in the strawberry fields. As they did not receive any wage for 6 months from their employer, they marched to his house in order to demand their wage. The employer ordered 3 of his foremen to shoot with sharp at the laborers. And they did it! Befehl ist Befehl!? Slaves in modern Greece? According to a recent report of the ILO, child labor exists not only in developing countries, but also in the European Union. On the other hand, in some EU countries, more than 50 % of the young people are unemployed, even with two university degrees. In the UK, zero-hour labor contracts have been introduced: employees have no guarantee for a 40 hours work week, they have to be present on the work floor on demand within the hour: the just-in-time principle applied not only to assembly parts but also to human beings! They are only paid for the hours they actually work. They can only sign a contract with another employer with the consent of the first employer. Charles Dickens situations? In a BRIC country like Brazil, there is social turmoil, as the economic growth has not led to more social justice, and the people realize that the after the World Cup Football 3

and the Olympic Games, the economic system will collapse, just as it did in Greece after the games in Athens. In Qatar they have started the construction of the football stadiums for the World Cup Football 2022. Laborers from Nepal have to work in inhumane conditions. Almost every day there is a deadly accident, and people die from a heatstroke or heart stroke as the people work in extreme temperatures and they have to pay for drinking water. They are lodged with 12 persons in a room in a filthy hotel. In order to have this job, they had to pay a labor broker in advance. A lot of them are not paid at all, so they do not have the means to escape the situation and they have to beg for food. (Link: http://www.theguardian.com/world/slavery). And I could proceed with some other examples.

Is this the 21st century? Were more than 130 years of social struggle in Europe and other parts of the world in vain? Apparently the current socioeconomic and geopolitical thinking is still based on Malthusianism, Social Darwinism and the Calvinistic and protestant work ethic, ergo on wrong premises, hence the upstairs-downstairs society! Nowadays, 99% of the people points to the other 1% as the responsible architects of the crisis. As Nick Cave sings And we know who you are, and we know where you live, And we know there's no need to forgive. But all the efforts of the 99% individual or in a myriad of organizations are not coordinated, chaotic and ineffective: rebels with a cause but without a vision. This is a tremendous waste of effort and time as they focus on the wrong causes. Their efforts could even be contra productive, as most of the 99% focus on conflict, confrontation and class struggle, which is just what the 1% wants: divide et impera! And then there are the UN organizations, the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD, the World Economic Forum and a myriad of academic persons, consultants, NGOs, climate conferences, labor unions, peace organizations, Artists for Peace and Justice, World Watch Institutes,.. Their efforts result in a periodic massive migration of politicians, diplomats, academics, people involved in NGOs and activists to remote and exotic parts all over of the world. I wouldnt like to feed all the persons involved in this endeavor of academic, social and economic unproductivity: most of these reports and conferences are just drops in the ocean, there is a lot of overlapping, and most of them bring not even a single quantum of solace to the people in need, the homeless, the unemployed and the working poor. The only ones who take advantage of all of this are the airlines, the hotels and the catering business. All of these laudable endeavors results in thick reports on topics such as peace, human rights, poverty, unemployment, ecological problems, income inequality. The public in general and even politicians do not read these reports or they classify them vertically after reading only the conclusions: Some people who read report like these become indignados, and start to demonstrate and take action against these crimes against humanity, without a clear vision of a viable alternative. Others make donations to humanitarian organizations in order to ease their guilty conscience.

But many people just shrug their shoulders, saying What can I do against it? They are NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard), who just go on living their lives, not reali zing that they are also victims of the present geopolitical and financial system, not necessarily physically but surely financially and economically. And then there are those who adhere to the false common wisdom that a war now and then is good for the economy, especially in times of crisis: creative destruction. Really, I have personally met people who think that way! To them I then say: I hope you and your dear ones will be in the first (read fire) line. They then look indignado at me, as if I lost my mind.

If we could convince them that there is an alternative, then maybe these NIMBYs and ignorants could also be mobilized. I apologize myself for this harsh verdict, and I know that you dont catch flies with vinegar, something I gladly leave to persons who have proved that they are good at this. So let me ask you a question: are you willing to make your organization and yourself obsolete in your current comfortable position and to take a job in the real productive economy, whether you are active in a charity organization, or as an academic at university, an international organization, a think tank, an NGO, all studying unemployment, social exclusion and poverty? Who will inherit the Earth? The ones who adhere to their privileged position at the expense of their fellow human beings, or the ones who are willing to treat their fellow human beings as they want to be treated themselves? I would like to present you with a practical, feasible and desirable way to eradicate this active unproductivity and to accomplish full employment overnight in order to come to a associative economy and an emphatic and inclusive society, to create a world without poverty and less inequality, to meet the UN 2015 Millennium Development goals and to remove the fuse from the powder-barrel the world is currently sitting on. In the course of history, social progress was accomplished when people agreed and focused on a common objective, when they could be mobilized for a common cause and then followed the same strategy. As examples we can refer to the general right to vote for men, the womens right to vote, a working week of 40 hours divided over 5 working days and a weekend of 2 days, paid vacation, social security, health care These were usually accomplished after a major war or revolution. But should we wait for such events? Or should we act proactively and avoid war and revolution? Cooperation with a common goal among all of humankind is indeed a much better way than the current kaleidoscopic waste of effort, as everybody gains. Buckminster Fuller, author of the book Critical Path once wrote: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete". All right, but how would this new model look like, and how could this be accomplished? I would like to present you and the rest of the world with a blueprint of a New World Allience that is to the advantage of the (99+1)% of the world population, all of humankind! It is based on a profound insight of how the socioeconomic system really works and on the profound knowledge of some universal wisdom. We do not focus in a reductionistic way on individual problems, but in a holistic way on the solution, a solution which is in line with the historical social evolution of humankind on this Spaceship Earth. 5

The information that is included in this document could very well lead to a stronger, cleaner and fairer world economy and to a more peaceful, emphatic, adiabatic (minimal entropy production in order to accomplish the maximum utility) and safer world, all this to the benefit of everyone. But this requires a paradigm shift in the socioeconomic thinking. In order to prove that a paradigm shift is possible, I refer in the next section to a recent historical fact. It is based on some ancient Chinese wisdom, formulated by Lao Tzu: Treat your fellow human beings as you would like to be treated yourself (the same message that Jesus was promoting). In order to contract a thing, one should surely expand it first. In order to weaken, one will surely strengthen first. In order to overthrow, one will surely exalt first. In order to receive, one will surely give first. This is called subtle wisdom. Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

A lesson from the recent past in order to make the first step in the right direction

Mr. Franz Bontrup is the CEO of the holding F. Bontrup Holding B.V, with headquarters in The Netherlands. The holding has several companies in several countries and is active in several branches of industry, especially in the ecological sectors, construction of passive house-boats (preparing for the Age of Aquarius?) with minimal energy consumption and zero emission, ecological agriculture and construction in ports. Some years ago, the holding had to close a quarry in Flanders, the northern Flemish speaking part of Belgium, and then acquired a quarry in the southern and French speaking part of Belgium, the Ardennes. The Dutch and Flemish speaking employees were transferred to the new quarry. Because of the long distance and commuting time, the employees stayed in the Ardennes for the whole working week of 5 days of 8 hours per day. The company paid for their lodgment and their expenses. After some months, it seemed that the employees were not that happy with this arrangement. There was little to do in the region after the 8 working hours, they had no contact with the local community, they missed their family and their friends at home, their social life was disrupted, the people were no longer motivated. Mr. Bontrup was well aware of this problem, so he got the idea to introduce a workweek of 3+3+1 days, in which half of the employees work 12 hours a day on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the other half works 12 hours a day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, while Sunday is the common day off. So the working week for the employers would be 12*3=36 hours compared to 8*5=40 hours in the former arrangement, while the facilities would be used 12*6 = 72 hours per week compared to 40 hours in the former arrangement, an increase with 80%! So the production and the number of jobs could be increased with 80%!!! He presented the idea to the employees, and they accepted it eagerly, as the prospect of being 4 days free after just 3 working days was very appealing, even with 12 working hours for 6

three consecutive days. So the new system was introduced and with success: the motivation of the employees was better, and the productivity and the profit ratio increased considerably. It was a win-win-win-win situation for the employees, the employer, the households and the governments all alike, as more people were employed and paid income taxes, and there were less unemployment benefits to be paid. Mr. Bontrup has then introduced this system successfully in all the companies of his holding! According to him, this system of 2 horizontal shifts per week is the solution in order to realize full employment and to eradicate poverty once and for all. I fully agree with this. His solution is a perfect example of creative lateral thinking, looking for an out-of-the-box solution, with empathic considerations for and to the advantage of all parties involved. I do not know if Mr. Bontrup was inspired by Christ or Loa Tzu, or by financial and economic considerations, but it proves that there is no incompatibility between economic and moral considerations! In this document I explain why this is the solution not only to eradicate unemployment and poverty, but to many of the problems I have listed in the previous section, and I elaborate some alternative scenarios.

Lessons from the more remote past when steps were made in the wrong direction

During the 1970s and early 1980s, after the Golden 1960s, the economy of most WestEuropean countries was no longer what is used to be: the level of profit was too low, the return on investment was not rewarding anymore. The return on investment is the ratio between the profit made and the risk bearing capital invested. In particular, the profit-ratio in those days was lower than the high interest-rate one could get from low-risk investments as government-bonds or saving accounts, due to the two-digit inflation of those days. So the incentive for private persons to invest in business was rather low, companies had difficulties in finding new funds on the money market. They had to go to the bank to negotiate a loan at a high interest rate, which had a negative impact on the working accounts of the companies. Countries like Belgium are dependent on export, as the home market is relatively small and a lot of energy and raw materials have to be imported in order to feed the economic process. As the wages and salaries at that time (1980s) were too high compared to those of other countries, it was difficult for companies to be competitive in these export markets. People were laid off as a result of the decline in turnover and production. With the help of government regulations and legislation, a policy of austerity, depreciation of the currency1 and even reduction of wages was pursued. Wages were no longer automatically increased when the cost of living had gone up. All these measures were aimed to consolidate or strengthen the position of the own economy in the international trade scene, so that, in the long run, the profit figure of companies would increase, especially that part of the profit resulting from export activities. This extra profit was then supposed to be an incentive toward new investments, which in turn would create new jobs. But this resulted in a more vulnerable economy, as the Belgian economy became more dependent on the world economy which is not under control of the Belgian authorities and entrepreneurs.

Since the introduction of the EURO, this is no longer possible!

For the same reasons, some countries like the USA under the Reagan and Bush Sr. administration changed their tax legislation, reducing the maximum level of taxation, particularly for the rich, in order to favor private business and reward successful entrepreneurs. The dilutees of society were supposed to wait until the wealth would have trickled down to their level, of course in diluted form. But history proves that there is no trickledown effect, rather a trickle up effect. On the other hand we can say that as a result of the national policies of wage control and tax reform, the real purchasing power of the majority of the population decreased while the inequality of the distribution of wealth increased, resulting in a lower level of consumption. A lot of enterprises realized lower turnovers in their home market, so the part of the profit resulting from that turnover decreased. Facts confirm this statement: in Belgium the turnover in retail-business for a particular month in the year went down for several years after the government started their policy of wage control in the early 1980s, the real purchasing power of the population went down with approximately 2% each year. You have to read the table below from left to right in order to account for seasonal influences.
Turnover retail-business in Belgium (index 100 = 1970) 1982 January February March April May June July 128 127 148 150 140 145 126 1983 123 119 136 131 129 135 117 1984 119 116 129 124 128 130 114

In order for the economic policy to be effective, the loss in turnover (and profit) resulting from the lower purchasing power in the home market had to be compensated by an extra increase of the export. Indeed, in an article in a newspaper of those days one can read that the economic activity, measured by the industrial production and the consumption of electricity, was increasing. But the private consumption was still declining. The economic activity was supported solely by export and by the increase of stocks of semi-manufactured articles. At that time there was no indication of the expected increase in investments and employment. But what if the extra export of goods and services is not enough to compensate for the loss in turnover in the own country? And what if the other countries are faced with the same problems and have decided to apply the same economic policy of moderation? Could it not be that all employees and enterprises in all those countries suffer from reduced wages and shrinking turnover? What is it good for to try to stimulate extra investments if there is no purchasing power, neither in the home market nor in foreign markets, to buy the products that could be produced with the extra production capacity? And what if there is an excess of production capacity, so companies no longer need to invest? 8

One was well aware of this problem in most branches of industry. Already in 1978 Bob Stouthuyzen, former chairman of the Belgian employers organization VEV, warned the politicians that it is absolutely necessary for private consumption to increase in order to get out of the economic crisis. An entrepreneur does not only want to produce, he also wants to sell his products, if not abroad then on the home market. One could indeed imagine that the economic policy of moderation and reduction of salaries and wages could lead to the crumbling off of the economic process and our material prosperity. All these phenomena are interrelated and could lead us into a downward spiral: lower wages, lower purchasing power, lower turnover, fewer investments because of the excess in production capacity, more unemployment, still lower wages... Where does this process stop? Could it not be possible that, in the long run, this economic policy will lead us to a social Armageddon because of its short-sightedness?

Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, The Second World War..., do we have to endure this once more? The contracting spiral of the world trade month by month during the 1930s, leading to the Second World War. From the book This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, written by the Professors Reinhart and Rogoff. Just replace 1929 with 2008. Rather revealing and scaring, isnt it?

Have we learned anything from the past?

On September 9th 2011 Mrs. Christine Lagarde, the new director of the IMF, held the opening speech at the Royal Institute for International Affairs in Chatham House: The Challenges for the Global Economy. About six weeks before that date, she spoke at a similar early morning event in New York, at the Council on Foreign Relations. These two sister organizations founded in the wake of the Great War have a common goal of fostering the ideas and dialogue needed to build a prosperous and secure world for all. I read her speech on the website of the IMF. Some items caught my attention: The key message I wish to convey today is that countries must act now and act boldly to steer their economies through this dangerous new phase of the recovery. There is a path to recovery [my emphasis, as I fully agree]. The ultimate goal should be strong, stable and sustainable global growth. The challenge is to find the pace of adjustment that is neither too fast, nor too slow. Unconventional measures may be necessary. The road ahead may be rocky, but a way forward exists if we act now.

In the Belgian financial newspaper De Tijd of August 27th 2011 I read 2 remarkable articles. One was about the meeting of the chairmen of the major central banks and the IMF at Jackson Hole, during which Ben Bernanke stated that the FED and other central banks have done their utmost best (printing of wagonloads of money or QE2 quantitative easing and low interest rates) in their fight against the financial and economic crisis, and that it is now up to the politicians to take the necessary measures. The ECB and other EURO-zone central banks, however, then followed a completely different strategy: no massive injection of money into the economic system and an interest rate that is higher than in the US in order to keep inflation low. The ECB had even decided to buy government bonds of countries in problems on the second market, which has led Jrgen Stark to his decision to quit the board of directors of the ECB. Confusion seems to be everywhere. In the Belgian context, just think of the diverging opinions of Professor Paul De Grauwe (macroeconomist) and Geert Noels of Econopolis (micro economist, more focused on enterprises than on countries). Politicians usually take advice from distinguished economists. In the same newspaper there was also an article about the Meeting of Nobel Laureates Economy held in Lindau in Germany. There is no agreement among them on how to solve the financial economic crisis, as they told diverging or even conflicting stories. Professor Stiglitz said the following during a press conference: The US needs a growth figure of 3% in order to reduce the unemployment. With a lower growth figure the unemployment will most probably increase. The QE2 measures of the central bank have not led to more investments and more employment. In his book The Three Trillion Dollar War, he estimates that the cost of the second war in Iraq is about 3,000 billion dollar, while the US spends only 100 billion dollar per year to development aid to developing countries.

During his speech to young promising economists Professor Stiglitz formulated an honest mea culpa, when he stated that his generation of economists has not always focused on the right questions. He urged the new generation to focus on the right questions and to find the 10

answers for these in order to come to a world with more social justice, more care for the environment and more attention for the wellbeing of everyone all over the world. If we can find the answers to the right questions this is indeed possible. I think that one of these right questions is: What is the principal purpose of the economy? Is it to provide jobs? Is it to generate profit for companies and their shareholders? Or is it to produce goods and provide services in order to fulfill the needs of your fellow human beings? I am sure that the latter is the principal purpose, and that jobs and profits are just consequences of this principal purpose. Putting the consequences as a goal has led us into the current socioeconomic mess. Andrew Haldane is Bank of England's Executive Director for Financial Stability and cofounder of Pro Bono Economics, an opportunity for economists to help charities. In his own words: I don't know if what you say about conservatism in central banks is actually true. I can see why people say that central bankers want to have ideas tested in a laboratory before they bring them to the world. In recent history, many ideas first bubbled up in academia and then eventually migrated into the policy sphere. Monetarism is one example for this, and the whole notion of adhering to policy rules grew out of academic literature. But during my time here there have been a number of examples where the causality has been reversed. In the current crisis, we looked for guideposts from academia but they were relatively thin on the ground. Link: Bank of Englands Haldane on the crisis of economics: Our models are no longer working properly I realize that a Copernican revolution in economic thinking will not be easy; it requires nothing less than the reprogramming of the brains of the academic economic community, the employers and the politicians. But I have the impression that things they are achanging, at last!

Humankind does turn around economy, economy turns around humankind with its needs and aspirations! Producing goods and providing services to your fellow human beings is the key to economical success.

11

The evolution of the use of time2 and the consequences of this

The way people organize their time has changed drastically since the beginning of the 20th century. The timetable below is based on the evolution in Belgium, but is also characteristic for most of the industrialized countries. End of 19th century and early 20th century: laborers, even children, had to work 7 days per week, often up to 14 hours a day. They had neither the money nor the time to consume the products they produced themselves. Laborers were considered as a production factor, with a certain cost to be kept as low as possible, not as possible customers. 1921: introduction of a working week of 48 hours (6 days of 8 hours). 1955: introduction of a working week of 40 hours (5 days of 8 hours). 1960: introduction of minimum wages. 1974: reduction of the working time to 38 hours per week and the introduction of early retirement in order to reduce the unemployment that was the result of the oil crisis of 1973, which triggered an economic crisis that lasted for over a decade.

This drastic reduction in working time per week and over a persons lifespan, and the higher wages were made possible thanks to the impressive increase in productivity by the introduction of automation in production and administration. As people had more free time and more money, they started to consume more: they could afford themselves a better house, a laundry machine, electric kitchen equipment, a television set, a stereo equipment, a car, a holiday abroad This has resulted into the consumer society as we know it today, an impressive economic growth and an increasing world trade. But this consumer society is very vulnerable and prone to recessions, as consumers can easily cut their spending of nonessential goods and services when their faith in the future is shaken by some event. Due to the financial crisis of 2008 and the resulting economic crisis of 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013, most politicians, economists and businessmen now advocate austerity, cuts in social spending, the freezing and even reduction of wages, the increase of the working time per week and a higher retirement age. It is as if they are trying to turn back time, just as Cher! So governments are sacrificing the purchasing power and quality of life of their own population and thus the internal turnover in their own country in order to boost the export. But the question is: export to which other parts of the world? The European Union, who is already the greatest exporter worldwide? America, China, India, countries that also are trying to boost their own export? South-America, an emerging continent? Africa, where the people have little or no purchasing power at all?

In ancient Egypt and China, a week consisted of 10 days, for the Etruscans, a week counted 8 days. The Celts of the British Isles had a 9-day week. For more examples: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week. So clearly, the way we organize the use of our time is just a convention !

12

In Belgium, the catholic labor union was established in 1886. In their magazine De Lichtstraal (The Lightbeam) of November 27th 1886 one can read the following: The cause of the present economic crisis lays in the small demand for goods which are produced. From every branch in industry one hears that the stocks are piled up, there is no demand, no consumption. So it is not surprising that prices are declining and unemployment is increasing, which results in lower wages and salaries... What are the options to solve this problem?... We must urgently seek for new markets in order to sell or exchange our products. In 2013, 127 years later, nothing seems to have changed. Lhistoire se rpte. And as the philosopher Santayana once said: Those who do not remember the past must relive it. I myself have made my own personal analysis of this problem and of the recurrence of economic crisis. I think that my findings and the solutions that I formulate in order to avoid similar crises in the future and to eradicate poverty might be a valuable contribution towards a more stable and sustainable economy, more social progress, less poverty in North and South, and even a more peaceful world. There is a feasible alternative for the socioeconomic setback that most economists, politicians and businessmen are currently advocating. I also formulate a proposal that breaks with business as usual and that could very well lead to a win-win-win-situation for business, governments and private persons alike. My proposal could solve a lot of problems at once, and most of all, it would induce the transition towards a more peaceful world and the abolition of violations of human rights. It would furthermore allow meeting the objective to spend 0.7% of the GNP for aid to the Third World countries, as well as the Kyoto protocol. The secret power of this proposal lays in the fact that it focuses on man as man with his needs and aspirations, and not as a mere production factor or consumer. In it I elaborate a new theory on the origin of profit and I formulate a redefinition of economy, a kind of Copernican revolution, which puts humankind at the center, with its needs and aspirations, and not profit. And this will lead to higher profits for all!

The cause of recurrence of financial and economic crises

A society and thus also the economy functions according to a certain paradigm, which is based on a set of premises more or less in accordance with reality. Several social groups in society set objectives and act toward those objectives according to those premises. If some premises do not agree with reality, but, on the contrary, are based on a wrong understanding or interpretation of reality or even on ignorance, then those performed actions will not lead to the desired objective. Instead, one will be faced with unexpected obstacles. This could lead to problems, economic crises, frustration, even aggression and wars. Because one has started from the wrong premises, one will most likely look for the causes of the failure and possible solutions in the wrong directions too. Otherwise one would have started in the right direction from the beginning! One will make the wrong diagnosis. One will even point to a scapegoat as a reason for failure. When a society functions according to a paradigm that is not in accordance with reality, and when, in spite of the crisis, it still follows the same line through, when it does not learn the necessary lessons from the past and when it does not adapt its paradigm, then that society will again and again be faced with the same kind of crises, even with increasing intensity. It will 13

again and again go through the same scenario just as the principal character in an ancient Greek drama: The tragic error in tragic drama is walking in blindness so that the tragic hero who intends to accomplish a certain result with his actions accomplishes the exact opposite. The cause for recurrence and periodicity in economy and for the persistent poverty in North and South can be found in the fact that the current economic paradigm is not in accordance with reality. The ever-repeating cycle of financial and economic crises (and wars) can only be interrupted if we succeed to transcend the limitations of the present socioeconomic paradigm and if we can expand or even transcend our paradigm, cut the wrong premises and add the new correct premises to it, so it is more in tune with reality. Any information processing system, be it automated or not, uses a certain logic on a set of data in order to come to a conclusion. Also human beings do this. The logic that is used can be correct or wrong. Obviously, using the wrong logic will not result in a correct conclusion. Human beings claim to be rational, especially in the academic world, and it is rather easy to find the faults in a line of reasoning. But on the other hand, we never seem to agree on main topics in economy even in the academic world and politics: everybody claims to be sincere and to tell the correct things. But ratio is only one part of the picture. Data are as important and unfortunately much more difficult to control, as it is not just a question of being correct or wrong. This is rather easy to verify by controlling the facts. Next to correctness, data have another aspect: are the data complete or not? And is all the information we use in our logic relevant? In other words, is there redundant information in our data set that might confuse us, or others? If you cannot convince, then confuse. In the table below we show what the result is of a perfectly correct logic on a set of data: Data are Incorrect Correct Incomplete Wrong conclusion Wrong conclusion Complete Wrong conclusion Correct conclusion Redundant Wrong conclusion Not necessarily the correct conclusion, as irrelevant data might have obscured the correct conclusion.

We will come to the correct conclusion only when we use the correct logic on correct, complete and non-redundant data. That is why in court, the witness has to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Furthermore, deliberately telling half of the truth is worse than telling a lie, as the receiver of the information can expose a lie by checking the facts, but he will not necessarily search for the data that were (deliberately) omitted. And when a problem is correctly and completely formulated, then the solution is already half way. That is the reason why I have used a holistic approach in my study, rather than a reductionistic one, which is doomed to fail anyhow. 14

It is very remarkable that most authors of textbooks on the history of the economy of a country or a group of countries limit their scope to periods in between wars, as though a war is just a fracture in the normal evolution of the socioeconomic process, without being part of it. For most economists, war is just an exogenous factor. But is this true? I myself have found some striking correlations between the occurrence of wars and the evolution of some economic entities, like the evolution of the average annual growth of the GNP per decade, the profit-ratio for companies, the inflation and the rate of growth of money in circulation, and, thanks to Buckminster Fuller3, also a correlation with the price of copper, a metal used in the production of ammunition as it does not sparks, just as gold, but it rusts. During times of relative peace, the stock of weapons, warplanes, tanks and gunboats is kept at a certain level, while the stock of copper ammunition is kept to a minimum level, just to afford regular exercises and maneuvers (copper rusts and turns green, which makes the ammunition obsolete after some time). But if a war is at hand, the stock of copper ammunition has to be increased Ergo the increase in thefts of copper in Belgium and many other countries in the railway and industrial infrastructure in recent years: the military industrial complex is increasing their stocks, they are preparing for war! Before one can start to improve things, one should first know what went wrong and why it went wrong. A good starting point is to ask the question Cui bono?, as in a criminal investigation. Who took advantage of the crime? In two other studies4 that I am willing to share with you and others, you can read what the wrong and missing socioeconomic premises are, what correct premises the world is missing, the answer to the question Cui bono? from financial and economic crises, poverty and wars. In this document I confine myself to the solution the world is desperately looking for: Eight Days a Week (Imagine, all the people sharing all the world...). My proposal is the logical next quantum leap in the social evolution of humankind, a feasible alternative to the social setback that most economists, politicians and businessmen are currently advocating. With this appeal, I hope to make a valuable contribution in order to solve some of the most urgent problems humankind is facing since the Great Depression of the 1930s, which has led to political extremism, economic warfare and the Second World War. I am convinced that politicians, economists and social activists all alike should and can make a difference towards a more stable and sustainable economy and a more peaceful world. There is a moral obligation for all of us to do so, especially towards the generations to come.

Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller), the author of the book Critical Path, is considered by many people as the greatest genius of the 20 th century. He did quite some innovative inventions. One of them is the geodesic dome, which is the basis of the fullerene or the bucky-balls (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullerene). Now, in the 21st century, this invention has resulted in carbon nanotubes which will be the technology used in the next generation of high performance computers with minimal energy consumption (http://cgi.stanford.edu/~group-rsg_csl/twiki/bin/view.pl/Public/CntProject). 4 Interested? Just Google geert callens scribd. The documents are Eight days a week - The Fourth Wave - On the origin of wars extended and On the diverging advice given by economists extended. Or send me an e-mail (geert.o.j.callens@gmail.com) and will gladly forward them to you.

15

Some historical facts to prove this.

I recently read the article written by Dave Johnson: Now They Want to Take Away the 8 Hour Day and 40-Hour Week. Link: http://truth-out.org/news/item/16238-now-they-want-to-take-away-the-8-hour-day-and40-hour-week In this article Mr. Johnson refers to The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, the law that brought us the eight-hour workday and the 40-hour workweek. The House will be voting on H.R. 1406, The Working Families Flexibility Act, which lets employers offer "comp time" instead of overtime pay. Flexibility? Orwellian newspeak! In the UK zero-hour labor contracts has been introduced: employers are presented a contract of employment without the guarantee of having a full employment of 8 hours a day for 5 days a week. They have to be standby and be at work within an hour on demand of the employer dependant on the workload. And they can only sign a contract with another employer with the consent of the first employer. Charles Dickens? Upstairs downstairs? I apologize for this rather long document, but the matter is rather important and even imminent. I am convinced that this information could be very useful for the socialist parties in their 1st May speeches to criticize the policy of austerity in the European countries, for the Christian democrats it could be the inspiration for a Rerum Novarum version 2.0., for the people in the USA it could be the basis for a New Deal version 2.0., and it holds also some valuable information for the ecologists and even the liberals: The Wealth of Nations version 2.0. It could be the start for a new common campaign, transcending ideological dogmas and borders, in order to come to prosperity and peace for everyone in harmony with nature, not only in Europe but even worldwide. A worldwide New Deal version 2.0. There are indeed forces at work (bankers, CEOs of multinational corporations) whose intentions are not that kosher at all: they base their worldview and actions on Malthusianism and Social Darwinism (there is not enough for everyone, struggle for life, survival of the fittest, so: Divide et impera). Another interesting article: Meet the 28-year-old Student Who Exposed Two Harvard Professors Whose Shoddy Research Drove Global Austerity - Economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, the academic champions of austerity, are exposed. Link: http://www.alternet.org/economy/meet-28-year-old-student-who-exposed-two-harvardprofessors-whose-shoddy-research-drove I suppose you are familiar with this article. If not, here some highlights: Since 2010, the names of Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff (R&R) have become famous in political and economic circles. These two Harvard economists wrote a paper, Growth in the Time of Debt that has been used by everyone from Paul Ryan to Olli Rehn of the European Commission to justify harmful austerity policies. The 16

authors purported to show that once a countrys gross debt to GDP ratio crosses the threshold of 90 percent, economic growth slows dramatically. Debt, in other words, seemed very scary and bad. Their historical data appeared impressive, as did their credentials. Policymakers and journalists cited the paper to convince the public that instead of focusing on the jobs crisis that was hampering recovery, we should instead focus on deficits. The deficit hawks jumped up and down with excitement. A new Washington consensus was born, and the public was hammered with the idea that cutting jobs, stripping away vital public services and letting infrastructure crumble was a good way to get the economy going. Most any ordinary person on the street would probably intuit that this made no sense, but there was this Academic Research By Esteemed Persons, so the argument was over. Herndon, a 28-year-old graduate student, tried to replicate the Reinhart-Rogoff results as part of a class exercise and couldnt do it. He asked R&R to send their data spreadsheet, which had never been made public. This allowed him to see how the data was put together, and Herndon could not believe what he found. Looking at the data with his professors, Ash and Pollin, he found a whole host of problems, including selective exclusion of years of high debt and average growth, a problematic method of weighing countries, and this jaw-dropper: a coding error in the Excel spreadsheet that excludes high-debt and average-growth countries. Herndon, Ash, and Pollin write: A coding error in the R&R working spreadsheet entirely excludes five countries, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, and Denmark, from the analysis. [Reinhart-Rogoff] averaged cells in lines 30 to 44 instead of lines 30 to 49 This spreadsheet error is responsible for a -0.3 percentage-point error in R&Rs published average real GDP growth in the highest public debt/GDP category. A coding error! Reinhart and Rogoff had been so sloppy in their work that they had not bothered to check their own spreadsheet. When you fix R&Rs problematic methodology and coding errors, you get a very different result that guess what? does not support austerity and shows that countries can most certainly cross the phony debt-to-GDP threshold and grow. Bottom line: The foundation of the entire global push for austerity and debt reduction in the last several years has been based on a screw-up in an Excel spreadsheet and poorly constructed data. The R&R report was biased and skewed!

Thomas Herndon deserves the Nobel Prize economy for this: the world should be forever in his debt by exposing the error (fraud?) in the research report of 2010 published by Kenneth Rogoff en Carmen Reinhart (Growth in Time of Debt). Some economic theories and studies are just ideologies in disguise in order to defend the interests of a small lite, who eagerly provide funds for this kind of research. With data and numbers one can proof anything just by ignoring the data that do not confirm the ideological inspired a priori hypothesis, or by extrapolating historical data indefinitely into the future without realizing that economy is not a linear system, but a non-linear system, in which bifurcation-points might occur (Ilya Prigogine, self-organizing systems and dissipative structures). In a bifurcation-point, a system is forced to evolve to a higher order, or it will recede to a lower level.

17

If you hear and read the diverging advices given by distinguished economists, you can only conclude that even most of the economists know neither the cause nor the solution for the present financial and socioeconomic crisis. In the European Union, the economists of the Troika (the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission) advocate budgetary austerity at the expense of the population: lower pensions, lower wages, lower social benefits and unemployment benefits, longer working weeks and retirement at a later age. In Greece the unemployment is up to 27% and even up to 60% with young educated people. Hundred thousands of schoolchildren suffer from malnutrition, as neither the parents nor the schools can afford to buy them food. The academic fraud by Reinhart and Rogoff is nothing else but a crime against humanity! According to an internal report of the IMF, economists of the IMF admit that the austerity measures imposed on the Greek population were contra productive. Link: IMF Country Report No. 13/154. An excerpt: Staff Report for the 2013 Article IV consultation, prepared by a staff team of the IMF, following discussions that ended on April 15, 2013, with the officials of Greece on economic developments and policies. Based on information available at the time of these discussions, the staff report was completed on May 20, 2013. The views expressed in the staff report are those of the staff team and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Board of the IMF. The bold is my emphasis: apparently some economists have a heart, while the members of the executive board of the IMF have a heart of stone! They adhere to Malthusianism and Social Darwinism! People in Greece are committing suicide as they no longer see a future: the policy of austerity is a crime against humanity! Other economists then claim that the policy of austerity will lead to the crumbling off of the economy and to more unemployment, as the purchasing power of the people declines, so the turnover for companies also declines, ergo also the investments and the employment. Facts confirm this view. In the USA, a country with a federal deficit of more than 100% of the GDP not to speak of the deficits of the individual states and the local communities and the high debt with the public in general , the Federal Reserve has recourse to quantitative easing (QE): they are printing wagonloads of money and injecting it into the economy in order to save the system from a total collapse, exact the opposite of what Europe is doing under the diktat of Germany and the Troika. The first group of economists tries to let us believe that the austerity will give a boost to the export of the country. But if you consider this Spaceship Earth as one single economic entity, to where can this extra export go? If all countries follow the same policy of austerity, the whole world economy and world trade suffers, except those who apply quantitative easing, while they preach austerity to the rest of the world. Anglo-Saxon White men (WASP) speak with double tongue? It is as the Anglo-Saxon lite wants to destroy the European Union from within. The Troikan horse [sic!] is clearly not made by the Greek, but is made in the UK and the USA! 18

Some urgent problems most industrial countries are currently faced with A post World War II baby boom generation that is now massively retiring and has a higher life expectancy. A low internal economic growth. In Belgium, for example, the average annual economic growth per decade shows a declining trend since the Golden Sixties. Could this be the basic economic law of diminishing returns, applied to the economy as a whole? o 1960s: 4.9% o 1970s: 3.2% o 1980s: 2.1% o 1990s: 2.0% o 2000s: 1.5% An increasing competition by emerging economies in Asia, like South Korea, Malaysia, China and India, and in South-America, like Brazil. The devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan only aggravated these problems. o A lot of people in Japan were then homeless and without a job and income. Forced migration of people due the radioactivity fallout in their region. o Facilities like public transport, schools and hospitals were overloaded. o All the nuclear power plants in Japan were out of service, putting an extra load on the other classical power plants. The needed capacity of electric power plants and the electrical grid is not determined by the total consumption over a period of time, but by the peaks in consumption. If one could level out the demand of electricity over time, then the total demand could easily be met without extra investments in new power plants.

This all seems to be a Gordian knot. But there might be a simple solution, a solution that is in line with the evolution how we organize the use of our time, as described above, and that would level out the demand of electricity over time, so there would be no need for more nuclear power plants, and it would solve a lot of socioeconomic problems at once. According to Albert Einstein, time is that what is measured by a clock. But there is a lot more to tell about time: it is just as land, capital, investment goods, energy, human labor and creativity a production factor whose use can be optimized. And time is, just as space, multidimensional and curved [sic!]! More on this in another document.

19

A complicated problem! (Or just not?)

For the majority of the world-population the division of the week now consists of 5 workingdays of 8 hours plus, for many of them, 2 extra hours in the morning and the evening for commuting to and from the working place. And then there are the 2 weekend-days.

Day 1 till 5 Population Active

Day 6 till 7 Off

This arrangement has some disadvantages on several domains. Mobility In many countries you can see every morning and evening of a working day the structural traffic jams of people commuting in their private cars in and around the big agglomerations where work is concentrated. Also public transport is overloaded and people are literally squeezed into the wagons of trains and metro-cars and in busses. To avoid that, in the near future, we will all stand still in our cars or suffocate in the train-wagons or busses, heavy investments are needed in the sectors of public transport and the construction of new roads. In some countries highways are constructed on a dual level or underground. Some countries invest heavily in fast trains. Both measures need rather expensive investments. Due to the present worldwide economic crisis, most governments do not have the budgetary capacity in order to take adequate measures. In some countries they barely succeed in maintaining the present road and railway infrastructure. Higher taxes have a negative influence on private consumption, and thus on the economic growth. During the rush hours the mobility infrastructure is overloaded, but for the rest of the day it is used to a much lower degree. Part of the trains and busses is then not used at all. Therefore further investments seem to be foolish. From Friday-evening on, you can then see the migration to the holiday-resorts and weekendhouses in the countryside, on the coastlines or in the mountains. Roads are again overloaded with people leaving the cities for the weekend. This problem of mobility causes a lot of daily stress for most of the people during working-days as well as during the weekend. It lowers the quality of life and has a very negative influence on the productivity of the transport of goods and the economy as a whole. It is a waste of time and money for private persons and professionals alike. And cars in a traffic-jam pollute more than cars that can drive along. Economic efficiency There is also a structural imbalance for the efficiency and the useful load of the industrial infrastructure, the public infrastructure and the recreational infrastructure. The means of production like factories and office-buildings are used only 5 days a week and during the 2 days of the weekend they are idle, not productive, empty. On the other hand, there is in many regions a need for new industrial areas, in order to create new jobs. But this means less space for housing, land for agriculture, recreational areas and natural parks. In some branches of the economy with continual production, like the petrochemical industry or the ports, there is 20

activity seven days a week 24 hours a day at the cost of higher wages for the weekend-work and the nightshifts. The infrastructure of schools and universities is also not used to its full capacity as they are empty during the weekend. Shopping centers are overcrowded on Saturday with people and their cars, but during working days they are often oases of peace and rest, unless they are located near offices, where they are frequented only during lunch hours or after the working hours. In some countries shops are already open around the clock and in other countries the big commercial companies demand the governments to legalize flexible working hours, so they do not have to pay extra for weekend work and evening-work. This at the expense of the quality of life of the employees, who have to work out solutions for practical problems such as babysitter, transport of children to and from school, and also at the expense of the small independent shopkeepers who have to adapt their business-hours if they do not want to lose their customers. Sport infrastructure and cultural infrastructure is used only during the evening hours on working-days and of course during the weekend. Personal quality of life This division of time has also some disadvantages on the personal level. When you buy furniture or a washing-machine, these are usually delivered at your home during working hours on a working day, so you have to take a day off from work. When there is some work to be done at your home by a plumber or electrician, some roofing or painting has to be done, then the professionals come to your home during the normal working hours and you have to sacrifice holidays for these practical matters. There is also a problem with the accessibility of public and private services like the townhouse, the post-office, the bank, the social security office, the dentist, the doctor,... whose opening-hours synchronize with your normal working hours. So another day off is sacrificed. Some of these services have opening-hours till 7.00 PM one day a week or on Saturday morning, but this means extra costs for the employers and a social burden for the employees and their family. In this stressful society a lot of people want a better quality of life; they are fed up with the rush-rush way of life. They want a better balance between time for commuting and actual working time and they want more time for recreation and their family. Public finances Most governments have budgetary problems due to their efforts to save the banks from bankruptcy, the situation of the world-economy and the demographic evolution. Their budgetary capacity is dependent on the economic growth and the level of activity or the unemployment level of their population. The economic growth of a country is supported by two components: internal economic growth and the surplus of their trading balance as a result of export to other countries. Countries are dependent on the economic situation of their trading partners for their exportlevel, and for most countries the situation is not that good at all. In order to be competitive, the cost of production and the wages should be lowered, but this erodes the purchasing power of the own population and thus the internal economic growth.

21

The post World War II baby-boom generation is getting older and life expectancy has increased considerably in recent years, so in most countries the public and private systems of retirement-pensions will be under great pressure. In some countries people are already warned that they will have to work longer in order to increase the level of activity in order to keep the public and private pension-systems viable. On the other hand it is difficult for older people to get a well-paid job in this fast evolving technological society.

10 A possible solution: Eight Days a Week This seems to be a Gordian knot. Solutions seem to be expensive or even unpayable, they will lead to higher taxes or inflation, and they will never be acceptable for everyone in society. Many of these measures will be a burden on the environment (more roads, more industrial zones, less space for nature and leisure-time...) and create new problems. And then you have the blissful optimist who once sang There are no problems, only solutions and People say Im crazy doing what Im doing, you know, the guy who sent the immortal song Imagine into the world. Before his successful solo-career, John Lennon was member of The Beatles, a band that compiled an impressive series of 27 N 1 hits. In their songs you can discover a lot a social, personal and spiritual wisdom, (Let It Be, The Long and Winding Road... ), and one of these songs might well enter the history as the Ode an die Freude of this century: Eight Days a Week Ooh I need your love babe, Guess you know its true. Hope you need my love babe, Just like I need you. Hold me, love me, hold me, love me. Aint got nothin but love babe, Eight days a week. Love you evry day girl, Always on my mind. One thing I can say girl, Love you all the time. Hold me, love me, hold me, love me. Aint got nothin but love babe, Eight days a week. Eight days a week I love you. Eight days a week Is not enough to show I care, Ooh I need your love babe, Eight days a week ... Love you evry ... Eight days a week. Eight days a week. Eight days a week. 22

Let us indeed try to imagine how we could manage our time in a more creative way. How could we organize an eight-days-week? Maybe we could arrive to what I would call the dual active-recreational society. Well, imagine(!) that one part of the active population and the kids and their teachers at school and the students and their professors at university are active the first 4 days, and that they are off the next 4 days, and the other part is off the first 4 days and active the next 4 days.

Day 1 till 4 50% of the population 50% of the population Active Off

Day 5 till 8 Off Active

As a matter of fact, every physical socioeconomic entity would be divided into two logical entities that are alternating active and idle, so the physical entity would be used at full capacity. This would indeed result into a dual society, but not a vertical one with people with a job and people without a job, haves versus have-nots, but rather into a sort of horizontal timesharing system across the whole of society of actives and not -actives, and with less or even no have-nots at all. Imagine all the people Sharing all the world... John Lennon, Imagine And what is left of our Gordian knot? Structural traffic jams in the morning and the evening would be considerably reduced without need for huge investments in roads and public transport. They both would be used in a more optimal way, every day of the week and every hour of the day. Transport of goods would be leveled out in time and would be more productive as there would be less traffic-jams. Professional, recreational and private transport would be more leveled out in time. Air-pollution and CO2 emission could be reduced thanks to the better transport efficiency. Factories, offices, public services, schools, hospitals, recreational facilities would be used at full capacity. This means a higher productivity, a higher profit-ratio for companies (profit/invested capital). The level of activity of the population could increase considerably, also for the older but still young-of-heart part of the population that still can make a valuable contribution to a more productive society. Their experience can be indeed of great value for the younger ones: a mix of experience (learning from past errors) and newly acquired knowledge is the perfect cocktail for innovation.

23

This would introduce a system in which there is a backup for every job, which is advantageous for companies. Nobody is indispensable and there would be a better transfer of knowledge and skills. Public and private services would always be accessible during normal business-hours for part of the population. No need to sacrifice days off, nor for overwork in the evening or work on Saturday. People would be able to spend more quality time with their family, for recreation, education and sports. This proposal meets the demand for less working-time and more leisure-time that lives among most of the people. People with a holiday resort or a sailing boat would be able to make more use of it. During the long weekend of 4 days they could make a short city-trip. When they take 4 days off, they have a period of 12 days to make a longer voyage. And when they take another 4 days extra (just 8 days in total), they have a period of 20 days off! What a return on investment! A reduction of the number of paid holidays for employees as well as a reduction of the school vacation for the kids at school and students at university in order to compensate for the reduction in working hours and schooldays could very well be socially acceptable. Absenteeism from work due to sickness or burnout syndromes would be reduced, with as consequence a positive effect on the cost of labor and the cost of the social security and health care systems. For a lot of people it offers the opportunity to combine work with study, without having to go to evening-school after a hard day of work. Or they could start their own business. Unemployment would decrease, which would result in higher income taxes and lower unemployment benefits, so the budget deficits of governments would evaporate and taxes on both income and company profits could be lowered. A maximum tax level of 10% might even be attainable in the near future. At last! There is no need for expensive investments in new infrastructure to implement this. On the contrary, the infrastructure of roads, offices, factories, schools, trains, busses, leisure-time infrastructure is already available, but is now not used at full capacity. As the infrastructure would be used at full capacity, the production of goods could be increased without need for investments. The new division of working time could result in more consumption, but not necessarily of products, rather of services, especially in the recreational business. This means that the GNP of a country, the employment and the internal consumption could increase, resulting in a better balance of trade and lower budget deficits. This division of labor time and free time could also be favorable for the people in Arabic countries like Tunisia and Egypt, but also Greece, Spain and Portugal, countries with a young, educated but revolting population, as they 24

dont see any chance for getting a well paid job, as well as for the people in the emerging countries like China, India and Brazil, where income inequality increases notwithstanding the impressive economic growth, I would even dare to say as a direct consequence of the impressive economic growth. And what would be the cost of all of this? Nothing is maybe too optimistic, but we might end up with a better utilization of all kinds of infrastructure without having to do large investments and without need to increase taxes. It is more a matter of time management than of infrastructure, a different way of organizing our life and our time. It is of course necessary to do further investigations on the social and economic benefits of this proposal. This should be done in a social debate, coordinated by a team of not only economists and managers, but also sociologists, engineers, labor unions, organizations representing small entrepreneurs, pedagogues, youth-organizations, political parties, governmental services, and this in co-operation with international organizations like the UNO, ILO, UNCTAD, IMF, The World Bank... On the other hand, should we wait, or shouldnt we just do it? Many questions remain to be answered. For most of them I have formulated an answer based on my own personal guts. Is it possible that one country could implements this alone, or should it be done on a continental level or on global level? I dont think it matters. The shop of the country would be permanently open for business, and even now countries are situated in different time-zones on the globe and some of them are islands. So every country can make its own arrangements, even region by region. My out-of-the-box solution could very well be implemented and tested for its validity on an island (Ireland? Corsica?), or a group of islands (Japan? The Philippines? Greece?), or a peninsula (Spain and Portugal? Italy?), a subcontinent (India?), or even a whole continent (South America? Oceania?). And I am sure that international organizations like the UNO, The World Bank, The IMF, the OECD and the European Union would be willing to fund such an experiment. On the other hand, should we wait for a decision of the politicians and the experts of these organizations? Or could we start to act locally in order to realize the transition? A lot of people have already to start globally by acting locally. See for example the book If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities written by Benjamin Barber, professor at the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at The City University of New York (link: http://benjaminbarber.org/). The worldwide associative economy movement and transition movement are two other examples that local action and self organization can accomplish much more than governments and international organizations (links: http://www.associativeconomics.com/; http://www.transitionnetwork.org/). What is the influence on wages, on the one side what employers have to pay and on the other side what employees can earn? Thanks to to the increased use of the public infrastructure and the infrastructure of private companies, the productivity would increase spectacular, allowing lower income taxes and higher net wages per hour for employees. So their purchasing power could 25

remain at the same level, even with the reduction of the working hours per person. What is the influence on energy consumption and pollution? Surely the electricity consumption would be more equalized over the week, so the consumption peaks and dips would be leveled out. The total production of electricity could be increased, while investments in new power plants and in the distribution network could be postponed. Immediately a higher profit-ratio for electricity companies! Or lower prices for electricity? Maybe a working-day of 9 hours is socially acceptable if there is less trafficjam during the morning hours and after working hours, and a weekend counts 4 days? So, every day of the present seven-day-calendar, half of the population would work 9 hours a day. For the employees this means a reduction in working time of 21%, while the useful load of factories and offices would increase with 57%! (See the simulation later in this section.) In a lot of industries, people work in a shift system. The following arrangement could be introduced, resulting in a simpler wage administration for companies:

1 shift system: 9 hours a day. 2 shift system : 8.5 hours per shift, at the same wage as the 1-shifters. 3 shift system: 8 hours per shift, at the same wage as the 1-shifters.

Unemployment would evaporate instantly. In the future one could use the number of working hours per day in order to fine-tune the economy. Imagine, time as means of investment. Indeed, isnt time money, as they say in English? Due to the increased use of facilities and the decrease in working hours per person, there would be need for more automation in administration and production. This could stimulate technological innovation and give a boost to the investment goods industry. What would be the effect on drug abuse, suicide figures, crime figures and violence in society, when more people would be able to find a job and have enough leisure time? What would be the effect on absenteeism from work and on the cost of healthcare? I am convinced the effect can only be favorable. See section 13 of this document. Is there a need for a new calendar system or is it feasible with the present seven days a week calendar? According to me, the present calendar system is just fine; it is just a matter of organization, of time management and timesharing. During a certain week, half of the population would start their work-period on a Monday and work till Thursday, the other half of the population would then work from Friday till Monday, so the first group would then take over on the next Tuesday, etc. The start of a work-period for a person would shove up one day each week. This becomes clear when you look at the simulation later in this section. How does this proposal fit in the trend towards globalization and with the transfer of production facilities and services, like call-centers and softwareproduction, to the lower-wage-countries? Well, the shop of the Earth would be 26

open to everyone, every hour of the day and every day of the year! Imagine, all the people sharing all the world... When can it be introduced? Very often social changes of this magnitude have been introduced after a major war (5 days working week, the general right to vote...). But I dont think we have to wait for such an event. We better do it at the beginning of a school-year. The family-unit should indeed be the central focus-point in this social (r)evolution. For two-parent and one-parent families with children, it is obvious that the parents and children have the right to choose the same regime. For families with no children or whose children already left the parental home, the choice would be free. The bachelors without children could then fill up the gaps. Due to the statistical law of great numbers, I am convinced that a socially acceptable division of labor is possible. In the Netherlands, for example, the students cannot choose the university for their higher studies. It is the government that allocates students to universities in an optimal way. But students are allowed to mutually swap their assignments in order to go to the university of their preference.

And another N 1 hit of The Beatles is We can work it out! Yes we can, see it my way! This proposal might induce some resistance from religious factions. But which one? For the Muslims Friday is the day of collective prayer, for the Jews the Saturday is the Sabbath, for the Christians Sunday is the day reserved for the Lord... It is difficult to satisfy everyone with that many religions... On the other hand, every day in the week could be a day for prayer, contemplation or meditation for part of the population... Isnt religion a private matter between an individual person and his Creator? And what about the self-employed people? Well they can decide for themselves how they will arrange their working time and leisure time. If they want to stick to their 5+2, 6+1 or even 7+0 regime, thats fine for me. Who am I to decide about other peoples life?

27

Simulation: The least common multiple of 7 and 8 is 56. So let us consider a 56 day period.
Present situation Hours facilities are used
8 8 8 8 8

Week
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Week 1

Day
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Future situation Working- WorkingWorkingHours hours/ hours/ hours/ facilities person person person are used group 1 group 2
8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9

Week 2

8 8 8 8 8

8 8 8 8 8

Week 3

8 8 8 8 8

8 8 8 8 8

Week 4

8 8 8 8 8

8 8 8 8 8

Week 5

8 8 8 8 8

8 8 8 8 8

Week 6

8 8 8 8 8

8 8 8 8 8

Week 7

8 8 8 8 8

8 8 8 8 8

Week 8

8 8 8 8 8

8 8 8 8 8

Total hours (sum)

320

320

504

252 21,25 % 57,50 %

252

Reduction of working hours per person: Increase in hours facilities are used: Intermediate conclusion:

Short of labor force Economic efficiency would increase considerably Some fine-tuning is needed, but looks very promising

Final conclusion:

28

11 Even better: Nine days a week Eight days a week Is not enough to show I care The Beatles, Eight days a week I have discussed this idea already with a lot of people, and I found out that, once they realize that time is just a convention, they understand the scope of the idea and what the impact could be on society and their personal life. Most of them said they wished this regime was already implemented, but at the same time they were very skeptical about the willingness of political leaders to do something about it, or of other people to accept this new way of living. The greatest single obstacle to the resolution of great problems in the past was thinking they could not be solved a conviction based on mutual distrust. Psychologists and sociologists have found that most of us are more highly motivated than we think each other to be! For instance, most Americans polled favor gun control but believe themselves in the minority. We are like David Riesmans college students, who all said they did not believe advertising but thought everyone else did. Research has shown that most people believe themselves more high-minded than most people. Others are presumed to be less open and concerned, less willing to sacrifice, more rigid. Here is the supreme irony: our misreading of each other. M. Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy, pp. 447-448. Or as John Lennon has formulated in his song Imagine: You may say Im a dreamer But Im not the only one I hope someday youll join us And the world will be as one One world? Well, rather a dual world, but then not a vertical one with haves at the top and have-nots at the bottom, but a horizontal one in which the burden for being productive and enjoying the products and services produced are evenly distributed. Most of the people, although they were positive about the idea, had one critical remark in common: there would no longer be a common free day for recreation and gatherings among friends and families, for sport and other kind of events. I think this is a valid critic. Well, let us just add another day to the regime, a day that would be free for the majority of the people. This would result in the following division of work and leisure time.

29

Day 1 till 4 50% of the population 50% of the population Active Off

Day 5 till 8 Off Active

Day 9 Off Off

The simulation below shows that he amount of working hours would be reduced with 30% while the amount of hours facilities are used would increase with 40%, also impressive figures.

30

Simulation: The least common multiple of 7 and 9 is 63. So let us consider a 63 day period.
Present situation Hours facilities are used
8 8 8 8 8

Week
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Week 1

Day
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Future situation Working- WorkingWorkingHours hours/ hours/ hours/ facilities person person person are used group 1 group 2
8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 9 9

Week 2

8 8 8 8 8

8 8 8 8 8

Week 3

8 8 8 8 8

8 8 8 8 8

Week 4

8 8 8 8 8

8 8 8 8 8

Week 5

8 8 8 8 8

8 8 8 8 8

Week 6

8 8 8 8 8

8 8 8 8 8

Week 7

8 8 8 8 8

8 8 8 8 8

Week 8

8 8 8 8 8

8 8 8 8 8

31

Present situation Hours facilities are used

8 8 8 8 8

Week
57 Week 9 58 59 60 61 62 63

Day
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Future situation Working- WorkingWorkingHours hours/ hours/ hours/ facilities person person person are used group 1 group 2
8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 9 9 9 9 9 9 0

Total hours (sum)

360

360

504

252 30,00 % 40,00 %

252

Reduction of working hours per person: Increase in hours facilities are used: Intermediate conclusions:

* Short of labor force * Need for business process reengineering in order to reduce active improductivity * Economic efficiency would increase considerably Some fine-tuning is needed, but looks very promising

Final conclusion:

People would be able to spend even more quality time with their family, for recreation, education and sports. During the long weekend of 4+1 days, people could make a city-trip of 5 days. When they take 4 days off, they have a period of 14 days to make a longer voyage. And when they take another 4 days extra (just 8 days in total), they have a period of 23 days off! An even higher return on investment!

So, clearly, a reduction of the number of paid holidays and a retirement age of 67 years or even more could be socially acceptable for employees, which could then convince also the employers and labor unions to accept this proposal.

32

12 Best: Back to seven days a week! For about a century we use the same calendar system worldwide. So many people are reluctant to change their habits. And, I admit, the administration for companies and the public sector would be more complicated with an eight or nine days a week regime, although. In most countries people tend to grow older, which puts a pressure on both the public and private pension systems. So people are urged to work longer, while unemployment with young educated people is increasing. In March 2013, unemployment in Greece was up to 27%, and even up to 60% among the young people! This seems to be contradictory. There are simply not enough jobs for everyone! We have to redistribute the available jobs in order to avoid a downward spiral of the economic activity and the world trade, which will lead to social turmoil and even war, if we want it or not: There Is No Alternative! Budgetary austerity as imposed by the Troika is not an option! So let us use our fantasy once more, and try to solve this Gordian knot in a simple way by returning to the seven day week, a solution which could be acceptable for all parties and which will not complicate the management of our time.

Day 1 till 3 50% of the population 50% of the population Active Off

Day 4 till 6 Off Active

Day 7 Off Off

The idea was presented to me by Mr. Bernd Hckstdt, author of Gradido - Natural Economy of Life - A way to worldwide prosperity and peace in harmony with nature. His book can be downloaded free of charge (Internet: http://gradido.net/academy, book website: http://gradido.net/Book ). I can recommend this book to everyone who cares for this Earth and the future of his children and grandchildren. In it he gives the reader the blueprint for a possible and desirable society model that could be realized in the very near future: Joytopia. I am pretty sure that my 3+3+1 days a week proposal is the perfect first stepping stone to his Joytopia. The simulation of this 3+3+1 days a week arrangement below shows that he amount of working hours would be reduced with 32.50%, while the amount of hours facilities are used would increase with 35%, also impressive figures, and very well balanced.

33

Present situation

Future situation Workinghours/ person group 1 9 9 9 9 9 9 Workinghours/ person group 2

Week 1 Week 2 3 4 5 6 7

Day Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Hours facilities are used 8 8 8 8 8

Workinghours/ person 8 8 8 8 8

Hours facilities are used 9 9 9 9 9 9

Total hours (sum)

40

40

54

27 32,50 % 35,00 %

27

Reduction of working hours per person: Increase in hours facilities are used: Intermediate conclusions: * Short of labor force

* Need for business process reengineering in order to reduce active improductivity * Economic efficiency would increase considerably Final conclusion: Some fine-tuning might be needed, but looks very promising

People would be able to spend more quality time with their family, for recreation, education and sports. During the long weekend of 3+1 days, people could make a city-trip of 4 days. When they take 3 days off, they have a period of 7 days to do whatever they want. And when they take another 3 days extra (just 6 days in total), they have a period of 14 days off. For every 3 days off, people would be 7 days off!

So, clearly, a reduction of the number of paid holidays and a retirement age of 67 years or even more could be socially acceptable for employees, which could then convince also the employers and labor unions to accept this proposal. The 3+3+1 day regime could be introduced locally or regionally, dependant on the specific local situation, for example on the level of unemployment, the traffic situation, the density of the population. Companies and organizations could decide independently, after an internal referendum, whether they make the transition. Self-employed people, managers and entrepreneurs, white collar and blue collar workers could decide for themselves whether they stick to their 5+2 days regime. Students at school and university and their teachers would follow the 3+3+1 regime. With the Internet and the intelligent devices like PCs and tablets, learning from a distance is perfectly possible. 34

A 10-hours working day would result in the following situation:

Present situation Future situation Working- Workinghours/ hours/ person person group 1 group 2
10 10 10 10 10 10

Week
1 Week 2 3 4 5 6 7

Day
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Hours WorkingHours facilities hours/ facilities are used person are used
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 10 10 10 10 10 10

Total hours (sum)

40

40

60

30
25,00 % 50,00 %

30

Reduction of working hours per person: Increase in hours facilities are used:

An 11-hours working day would result in the following situation:

Present situation Future situation Working- Workinghours/ hours/ person person group 1 group 2
11 11 11 11 11 11

Week
1 Week 2 3 4 5 6 7

Day
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Hours WorkingHours facilities hours/ facilities are used person are used
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 11 11 11 11 11 11

Total hours (sum)

40

40

66

33
17,50 % 65,00 %

33

Reduction of working hours per person: Increase in hours facilities are used:

35

A 12-hours working day would result in the following situation:

Present situation Future situation Working- Workinghours/ hours/ person person group 1 group 2
12 12 12 12 12 12

Week
1 Week 2 3 4 5 6 7

Day
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Hours WorkingHours facilities hours/ facilities are used person are used
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 12 12 12 12 12 12

Total hours (sum)

40

40

72

36
10,00 % 80,00 %

36

Reduction of working hours per person: Increase in hours facilities are used:

As described in the introduction, the company of the entrepreneur Franz Bontrup actually uses this 3+3+1 days of 12 hours a day system, with success and with the consent of the employees! Link: http://www.bontrup.com/en/. Make your choice! Take it or leave it. If not now, then when? We can work it out and get it straight, or say good night. We can work it out, We can work it out. Life is very short, and there's no time For fussing and fighting, my friend. I have always thought that it's a crime, So I will ask you once again. Try to see it my way, Only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong. While you see it your way There's a chance that we may fall apart before too long. We can work it out, We can work it out. The Beatles, We Can Work It Out

36

13 More equality leads to more happiness for more people Richard G. Wilkinson (Richard Gerald Wilkinson; born 1943) is a British researcher on social inequalities in health and the social determinants of health. He is Professor Emeritus of social epidemiology at the University of Nottingham, having retired in 2008. He is also Honorary Professor at University College London. He is best known for his 2009 book (with Kate Pickett) The Spirit Level, in which he argues that societies with a more equal distribution of incomes have better health outcomes than the ones in which the gap between richest and poorest parts of society is greater. His 1996 book Unhealthy Societies: The Affliction of Inequality had made the same argument a decade earlier. With his extensive research, comparing facts and figures of several countries, he has demonstrated (proved!) that in countries were the gap between rich and poor is small, both the rich as well as the poor are happier and can enjoy a higher life expectancy, irrespective of the absolute Gross Domestic Product per capita of the country. The USA and Norway, for example, have the highest GDP per capita in the world. New Zealand and Greece have a much lower GDP per capita, but people there enjoy a higher life expectancy than the Americans and the Norwegians. Once the GDP per capita has reached the threshold of 10,000 US$, the level of wellbeing is no longer dependant on the level of wealth. And there are many other advantages when there is less inequality in incomes and wealth. The skills to read and write and knowledge of mathematics are better. Child mortality is lower. There are less crimes and murders; there are fewer people in prison. There are fewer pregnancies with teenage girls. There is more mutual trust among people. There is less obesities. There are less mental diseases. There is more social mobility.

Wouldnt you like to live in a world with less inequality, with all these advantages? Couldnt Eight Days a Week, or Nine Days a Week or 3+3+1 = Seven Days a Week be the road to this Utopia? Or do you prefer more inequality, the road to Oblivion? John Lennon, Watching The Wheels (Utopia) People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doing, Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin, When I say that I'm o.k. they look at me kind of strange, Surely your not happy now you no longer play the game, People say I'm lazy dreaming my life away, Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me, 37

When I tell that I'm doing Fine watching shadows on the wall, Don't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball? I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round, I really love to watch them roll, No longer riding on the merry-go-round, I just had to let it go, People asking questions lost in confusion, Well I tell them there's no problem, Only solutions, Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I've lost my mind, I tell them there's no hurry... I'm just sitting here doing time, I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round, I really love to watch them roll, No longer riding on the merry-go-round, I just had to let it go.

John Lennon, Instant Karma (Oblivion). Instant Karmas gonna get you Gonna knock you right on the head You better get yourself together Pretty soon, youre gonna be dead What in the world you thinking of Laughing in the face of Love What on earth you tryin to do Its up to you, yeah you Instant Karmas gonna get you Gonna look you right in the face You better get yourself together darling Join the human race5 How in the world you gonna see Laughing at fools like me Who in the heck dyou think you are A super star Well, alright you are Well we all shine on Like the moon and the star and the sun Well we all shine on Evryone come on Instant Karmas gonna get you
5

Race as in Indianapolis as well as the species as well as a strong current!

38

Gonna knock you of your feet Better recognize your brothers Evryone you meet Why in the world are we here? Surely not to live in pain and fear Why on earth are you there When youre evrywhere Come and get your share Well we all shine on Like the moon and the stars and the sun Well we all shine on Come on and on and on Yeah yeah alright ah ha The solution that I propose is inspired by an old Jewish story that someone told me in 1980. The old Jewish story goes like this. A man dies. In the world beyond he is allowed to choose himself between heaven and hell, which is, indeed, rather exceptional. The man does not like to take the risk to buy a pig in a poke, so he asks for a short visit to both places before making a decision. First he is shown hell: a beautiful decorated room with long tables dressed with the most delicious food and drinks. Then a door is opened and the guests of Beelzebub enter the room, all dressed in magnificent clothes. But all persons seem to have the same handicap: both their elbows are stiff: they cannot bend their arm, so they cannot reach to their mouth. From the moment they see the food, they rush toward the tables. In doing so they push each other aside with one arm and try to grab everything they can with the other, much more than they can eat. But then they fail to bring the delicious food to their mouth, and out of anger and despair, they start to hit each other with the duck lorange, the lobsters and that sort of things. As JeanPaul Sartre would say : LEnfer, cest les autres. After this visit to hell, the man is given a glimpse of heaven: exactly the same scene. The same beautiful room with the same tables full of delicacies. Again the guests enter the room, dressed in exquisite clothes and again with two stiff arms. Each soul calmly walks towards the table, they all carefully select a piece of food... and reach it to the mouth of the person next to them. All this happens in a serene atmosphere. They all enjoy the delicious banquet. So here we could say: Le ciel, cest les autres. In Poland, the labor union Solidarno of Lech Wasa in Gdansk managed to overthrow the communist government, which was the start of the end of state communism, the disintegration of the USSR and the return to more democracy in Eastern Europe. Couldnt solidarity among all people in the Western industrialized world and all over the world be the start of the end of the Malthusian Wild West neo-liberal casino capitalism? The end of the Anglo-Saxon upstairs-downstairs society? Malthusianism and Social Darwinism promote struggle for life and competition in order protect the privileges of only a tiny minority. The notion struggle for life was never formulated by Charles Darwin. In his own words: It is not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most adapted to change. 39

We not only can change, we have to! There Is No Alternative! Are you adapted to change? Or do you want to stick to business as usual?

14 The quaternary sector During the course of history, the economic and social landscape went through an enormous evolution. Until the early Middle Ages, the major part of the population was working on the fields as serfs. Later came the mediaeval towns with the craft-guilds and the commercial guilds, which took care of the industrial production and the trade. Due to the advancing mechanization since the Industrial Revolution, less and less people needed to work in the agricultural sector (the primary sector), and more people were employed in the industry (the secondary sector). By the use of energy generated by coal and later fossil fuel and by industrial innovations like the assembly-belt, less people were needed in the industry, and the employment in the secondary sector decreased, while more and more people worked in the service industries (the tertiary sector). So far the classical division of employment which is used by economists: people are employed in the primary, the secondary or the tertiary sector. Period! But this point of view lags far behind reality, primarily because this vision fails to focus on man as man; it just considers people as a means of production. It is my solemn conviction that man is not created only to work. All work and no play make Jack a dull boy. Most people do not go to work because they like it, but in order to make a living in order to fulfill their needs. And once they make enough money, they spend a substantial part of it on things and activities they really like: a good dinner in a restaurant, going to the movie-theatre, the opera or a concert, listen to music, playing games on a game console, do some sport, a visit to the sauna, a trip to an exotic island, in brief: they want to enjoy themselves during their leisure time. And this brings us to the quaternary sector (I admit, not directly an original name): the set of human activities that involves leisure time in the widest sense of the word: the hotel and catering industry, the cultural sector, the game, film and music industry, tourism, sport, This sector already exists6, its turnover and employment are even gigantic in these days, and fortunes are made by actors, entertainers, sportsmen and businessmen investing in this new branch of industry. According to a report published in January 2013 by the cabinet of the Flemish vice minister president Geert Bourgeois on the importance of the tourism for Flanders and Brussels, this sector is good for: 6,7 % of all jobs. 5 % of the GDP (more than many other sectors). Tourism is worldwide one of the fastest growing economic sectors, and has also in Flanders a major contribution to the economy. This reality could teach us a lesson in economy and point us the way out of the present socioeconomic crisis. I propose to make the study more extensive, by not only including tourism in the figures of the GDP and the employment, but all activities that men and women do during their leisure
6

I even think that this sector is historically the oldest sector.

40

time and for which they spend money (equipment, clothes, services from professional trainers, membership-fees, admission-fees), and to include also the investments which are needed for infrastructure. Culture in all its forms (museums, concerts, opera, theatre, art in all its forms, films, TV, books, DVDs) Sport in all is forms (professional as well as amateurs, fitness centers, sport clubs, swimming pools, marinas, sport equipment and sportswear,) Relaxation (hotel and catering industry, sauna and wellness-centers, videogames and game consoles, televisions and audio and video equipment in all its forms,) Etc I assume that some brainstorming could extend this list considerably.

I am convinced that the result of such a study would be spectacular: the percentage of jobs in the leisure time business and the contribution to the GDP might surprise us all, not in the least the economists. And what lesson should we learn from this? Wouldnt it be better to give people more leisure time to people instead of asking them to work more hours per day, per week, per year and over their lifespan? And how do we implement this so it is also to the advantage of the business community and the government? When the eight day, nine days or 3+3+1= seven days a week regime would be introduced, the economic importance of this quaternary sector could increase considerably, and become more important than the other three sectors combined. It could generate a substantial economic growth and thus also profit for society and for companies, so there would be no longer need for the sector of disinvestment goods and wars in order to pull the profit ratio to a substantial higher level, as was the case in previous centuries.

15 Quod erat demonstrandum: panem et circencem for everyone is the future! Next to the 3+3+1 solution that Mr. Bontrup has introduced in his companies, I refer to another practical example of an entrepreneur with a vision for the future of humankind, someone who has also realized that this quaternary leisure-time sector is the future for humankind, and not the Calvinistic and protestant work ethic and the upstairs-downstairs society. Source: Hollywood East: Why American Movie Companies Are Rushing to Find Big-Screen Partners in China An excerpt: Wang Jianlin, reported to be Chinas richest man, has pledged up to $8.2 billion of his $22 billion fortune to build a massive state-of-the-art film studio complex. The planned Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis will comprise 20 studios, the worlds biggest sound stage, an R&D center, cinemas, museums, hotels, and a theme park and more; the first components of the complex are scheduled to open in 2016. Link to the sitemap of the very interesting official website of the Dalian Wanda Group Corporation Ltd: http://www.wanda.cn/English/Other/sitemap.shtml

41

Some interesting highlights: The Dalian Wanda Group was founded in 1988 and operates in four major industries, including commercial properties, luxury hotels, culture & tourism, and department store chain. The company has assets of 300 billion yuan ($48 billion) and an annual income of 141.7 billion yuan ($23 billion), and pays 20.2 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) in taxes every year. The company now operates 71 Wanda Plazas, 38 five-star hotels, 6,000 cinema screens, 57 department stores and 63 karaoke outlets across the country. By 2015, the company aims to increase its assets to 400 billion yuan ($64.8 billion) and annual income to 250 billion yuan ($40.5 billion), and pay 30 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) in taxes every year, becoming a world-class enterprise. Corporate Culture "Spiritual pursuit represents the highest level of human pursuit and cultural operation represents the highest level of corporate operation." Thanks to the efforts over two decades or so, Wanda Group has become a forerunner in China in terms of corporate culture and represented the direction for the development of China's corporate culture. Integrity Good faith is the foundation for a market economy and a basic principle for corporate operation. Since its establishment 24 years ago, Wanda Group has operated in good faith and it remains a top priority. Good faith, as a core value and basic code of conduct, is in the DNA of Wanda Group. Environmental Protection Wanda Group takes environmental protection very seriously, and is one of the first enterprises to roll out environmentally friendly and energy-saving buildings in China. Employees Benefits Wanda Group views talent as the chief capital of the enterprise. It now has close to 50,000 employees. Our entire management team possesses academic qualification of at least a bachelors degree, with more than 40% holding either a masters or PhD degree. The average age is 36 years. 70% of our senior management team holds at least a masters degree, and the average age is less than 40 years. Wanda Group has the lowest employee attrition rate among the large enterprises in China. Good enterprise development prospects, wide platform for development of individual careers, harmonious and transparent interpersonal relationships, comprehensive and lucrative compensation and a uniquely excellent enterprise culture are the defining elements comprising the cohesiveness of Wanda Group. Charity Contribution Wanda Group has set Create wealth together and contribute to the society as the mission of the enterprise. For the past 24 years, Wanda Group has made cumulative cash contributions of over $450 million to social charity causes, making it one of the 42

largest charity contributors among Chinese private enterprises. Wanda Group has received 6 China Charity Awards, and it is the only Chinese enterprise to have won this award 6 times. Cultural Heritage Preservation Every enterprise should be responsible for carrying forward the excellent culture of its country and promoting the development of national culture. Wanda Group spends a substantial amount of money in acquiring famous Chinese modern and contemporary paintings and calligraphy. By frequently exhibiting these great works we are successfully promoting Chinese excellent traditional culture. Luxury Hotels Wanda Hotel Investment & Development Company is the largest enterprise in China in terms of the size of investments into five-star hotels. It currently operates 28 five-star and super five-star hotels, and plans to expand to 70 five-star and super five-star hotels by 2015, with commercial floor area expected to top 3 million m, making Wanda the greatest five-star hotel owner. Wanda Hotel Investment & Development Company is capable of handling the design, construction, decoration, electrical & mechanical engineering and other works for a five-star hotel independently; and has established strategic partnerships with a group of top global hotel management groups such as Accor, Starwood, Hilton, Hyatt and InterContinental etc. Arent these real proofs that another, inclusive world with more leisure time for everyone is possible? Isnt this the proof that Lao Tzu was right and that the Anglo-Saxon Malthusians and Social Darwinians are wrong?

16 What can you do: Reach out and touch! Make this world a better place If you can Reach out and touch Somebody's hand Make this world a better place If you can (Just try) Take a little time out of your busy day To give encouragement To someone who's lost the way (Just try) Or would I be talking to a stone If I asked you To share a problem that's not your own 43

We can change things if we start giving Why don't you Reach out and touch Somebody's hand Make this world a better place If you can Reach out and touch Somebody's hand Make this world a better place If you can (Just try) If you see an old friend on the street And he's down Remember his shoes could fit your feet (Just try) Try a little kindness you'll see It's something that comes very naturally We can change things if we start giving Why don't you Reach out and touch Why don't you (Why don't you) Reach out and touch somebody's hand Reach out and touch Somebody's hand Make this world a better place If you can Reach out and touch Somebody's hand Make this world a better place If you can (Reach out and touch) Somebody's hand Performed by Diana Ross, Lyrics by Nickolas Ashford/Valerie Simpson Nowadays, more and more persons have become aware of the problems of these times. They realize that we are living in a transition period a bifurcation point in the terms of dissipative structures and self-organizing systems which could lead to a leap forward for all of humankind, or to a major socioeconomic setback and even war. These people act individually or in a myriad of informal or formal organizations, a kaleidoscopic waste of effort and time that could however become a powerful force for change if they could be synchronized towards the Truth. What follows is how I envision this could be achieved. The study Eight days a week - The Fourth Wave and the related documents you can download from my bookshelf (http://www.scribd.com/Geert%20Callens/documents) are intended to act on the world in the same way as a solenoid acts on an iron rod placed inside that solenoid.

44

When a very strong DC-current is sent through the solenoid or wire coil, a magnetic field is created, which forces all the infinitesimal small parts in the iron rod little magnets themselves to be directed in the same direction. So the rod becomes a very strong magnet itself: all the noses are pointed in the same direction. And even after the DC-current is withdrawn, remnant magnetism remains in the iron rod for many, many years to come! In a nutshell, the book Eight days a week - The Fourth Wave describes the hidden mechanisms behind the history of mankind as it has been documented by academic historians, usually many years after the events took place, and this without ever mentioning these hidden mechanisms. A history, which consists of a vicious circle of wars, homicides, vendettas, and genocides... an eye for an eye until the whole world is blind. And we seem to be pretty near to that point, as you will read in the epilogue of the study. We have come to a point in history where nobody seems to be in control anymore of the mechanisms he has set into motion, while on the other hand more and more information becomes available in real time via the Internet on whos behind which covert operation. With my study Eight days a week - The Fourth Wave I want to show you that there is an alternative for this MADness. I hope you have enjoyed (or will enjoy) reading my documents. It is up to us, the people, to do something for the people about what is described in these documents. But you and I cannot do this alone. It has to be done by the people, for the people. The first step is to inform other people, your family, friends, colleagues who might be interested in this matter. They can then inform other people, and so one. Maybe then something can be changed. Consider the following table, and you will be surprised how easily and fast you can reach out to the whole world after some iterations:

45

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

to the power10 is

1,024 59,049 1,048,576 9,765,625 60,466,176 282,475,249 1,073.741,824 3,486,784,401

Your street Your local community Your town Your state Some other states Your country Your continent Half of the world population

Beyond that, we have to go extraterrestrial. All the best!

PS: This proposal is the result of an indebt study on the recurrence of financial and economic crises, and how to avoid similar crises in the future for once and forever (Eight Days a Week The Fourth Wave, 313 pages only). My complete study with analysis of the problem and with solutions is in essence nothing else than the logical extension of the above described socioeconomic evolution of the way we organize our time, and this for the better of all of humankind. You can find my study and some other documents by Googling Geert Callens Scribd. Some highlights of my study I have been able to pinpoint some wrong socioeconomic premises. See chapter 4 Some strong wrong economic premises. I have been able to pinpoint some missing socioeconomic premises. See chapter 5 Basic Theory on the Origin of Profit. I have been able to formulate some viable measures in order to solve the economic crisis and even to avoid similar crises in the future, measures that also could lead to a more sustainable economy, more personal wellbeing for all of humankind and a more peaceful world. See chapter 8, Some feasible solutions. I also formulate a proposal that breaks with business as usual and that could very well lead to a win-win-win-situation for business, governments and private persons alike. My proposal for some social innovation could very well solve many of the problems humankind is facing. And most of all, it would induce the transition towards a more peaceful world and the abolition of violations of human rights. It would furthermore allow meeting the objective to spend 0.7% of the GNP for aid to the Third World countries and the UN Millennium Development Goals, as well as the Kyoto 46

protocol to reduce global warming. The secret power of this proposal lays in the fact that it focuses on man as man, and not as mere production factor or consumer: a kind of Copernican revolution in economic thinking, a new 21st century Rerum Novarum and New Deal version 2.0. The table of content and the bibliography will give you an idea of the scope of my study.

With this appeal, I hope to make a valuable contribution in order to solve some of the most urgent problems humankind is facing since the Great Depression of the 1930s, which has led to political extremism, economic warfare and the Second World War. I am convinced that politicians, economists and social workers alike should and can make a difference towards a more stable economy and a more peaceful world. And I think there is a moral obligation for all of us to do so, especially towards the generations to come. Please feel free to share this information with whoever is interested in this matter (who isnt?). Contact: geert.o.j.callens@gmail.com
Bookshelf: http://www.scribd.com/Geert%20Callens/documents

17 Appendix: Information in an economic perspective A writer tries to convey a message to the reader by means of his text: he wants to communicate, to transfer information. This text does not break with this tradition. As it will probably be read by people with different backgrounds and education, I will now give a short discussion on the concept of information by positioning it in a larger framework of socioeconomic domains and this over a period of several centuries: Science Economy, the means of production and the question who is very, very rich? The phenomenon of war, the why of war and the means of warfare

I hope this can enthrall the reader and stimulate him to do some further thinking on his own. Matter Many scientists consider the conservation laws as the most fundamental laws of physics. In the 18th century the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier was the first to formulate such a law, the law of conservation of matter or mass, which stated that, in a chemical reaction, the total amount of matter of the reaction compounds remains constant. This law was expressed in a more general form as follows: the total amount of matter in a closed system remains constant. If you burn a candle, it will get shorter and disappear, but the molecules of which it is made do not annihilate: they will settle down as dust and smut particles in the room and on your clothes. Linking this law of conservation of mass to the historical evolution of the economic system, we can say that in agricultural societies matter, more specific land, was the most important production factor. The first kind of people that where very, very rich were those who possessed matter in the form of land (aristocracy, owners of plantations in the colonies 47

oversea....) or were engaged in the transport and the processing of matter (merchants, mining companies). Wars and battles were almost always related to the possession of land, because of what was growing on the land or what was underneath the surface of the land, and to get control of the people living on that land as labor-force, very often forced to labor for just peanuts. Just think of the many wars on the European continent and the period of colonization of territories on other continents. These wars were fought with material means: clubs, swords, spears, bows and arrows, battleships powered by galley-slaves, later on came the energy powered means of warfare like firing weapons, canons, and sailing ships. And this evolution to energy driven means of war brings us back to science. Energy In science, the law of conservation of energy was a next milestone. By the beginning of the 19th century, scientists had realized that energy occurs in the different forms of kinetic energy, potential energy, and thermal energy (heat), and that energy can be converted from one form to another. As a consequence of this insight the law of conservation of energy was formulated by the German scientists Hermann von Helmholtz and Julius Robert von Mayer, and the British physicist James Prescott Joule. This law, which states that the sum of kinetic energy, potential energy, and thermal energy in a closed system remains constant, is now generally known as the first law of thermodynamics. During the Industrial Revolution energy began to play an important role as means of production. So there came a time that the very, very rich people were those who had control over the energy resources (Rockefeller, Arab Sheiks...) and the transport and processing of energy. And wars were fought in order to secure this control over the energy resources. The weapons used in these wars became more and more energy driven: more powerful bombs, canons with a larger range, ships with steam engines or diesel engines, air-planes Matter and energy together Later Albert Einstein formulated his famous equation E = Mc, where E stands for the amount of energy (expressed in kilogram*meter/second), M for the amount of mass (in kilogram) and c the speed of light (in meter/second). The speed of light is seemingly one of the basic constants in Nature. This simple equation states the transformability from matter to energy, and according to recent experiments in a physics laboratory, also vice versa. So the two laws were combined in the law of conservation of matter and energy together. It is important to note that even in ancient times this relation between matter and energy was vital: In the time of the very, very rich landlords energy was also needed in order to produce the material affluence: solar energy is needed to grow crops, physical labor is needed to prepare the land, to make irrigation canals, to harvest the fruits of nature. Next to water, solar energy was the most important ingredient for plants to grow. Energy was needed to process and transform the matter. 48

Similarly, in order to produce, store and distribute energy, matter is essential. Windmills transformed the kinetic energy of the wind to useful mechanical rotation. Manpower, animal power and wind energy were used to transport the goods. Even in our modern times there is a mutual dependency of matter and energy: you need drilling equipment and pumps to go after the oil, you need oil barrels and pipelines to transport the oil, generators to produce electricity, batteries to store it, copper wires to transport it...

So clearly, also in an economic perspective, energy and matter are interrelated. The one cannot be processed without the use of the other. We stress the fact that it took aristocracy ages of warfare in order to get to their level of extreme wealth. But those who have built their empire on energy succeeded in their endeavor in a period of little more than half a century, a period marked by a number of world conflicts in order to get control over the supplies of fossil energy on this earth. Information Now at the beginning of the 21st century one of the richest men on Earth is neither a landlord nor an oil-baron. Bill Gates has built his fortune in a period of only a few decades and he did this in the business of information processing. So we could consider information, or knowledge, as a third essential means of production, next to matter and energy. In this respect it is important to stress the fact that information or knowledge was also very important in the earlier matter or energy based societies. People needed the necessary knowledge and skills for an efficient agriculture, to exploit ore and to process it to metals. They had to have the experience of transforming natures energy resource like wind and water and later the fossil fuels into useful energy. In our present computer controlled society, information needs matter and energy: one need material objects in order to store information, to process it, to visualize it and to broadcast or transmit it: books, CDs, PCs, displays, communication networks. And in order to transmit or process information, energy is needed.

Even in the field of warfare information has become an important asset, if not the most important one. First of all the public at home has to be brainwashed in a gigantic media and PRcampaign, so they unconditionally accept the war for the general good and the national security, whatever that might be. The pressing of a certain worldview upon the people is based on information that is made ready to digest, but very often it seems that, when the war is over, this information has no relation with truth whatsoever: it is rather misinformation in order to deceive the own population of the real reasons of the war. Just remember the imaginary weapons of mass destruction in Iraq7.
7

Noam Chomsky, Failed States, pp.24-27.

49

The smart weapons and the cyber-soldiers rely more and more on information and communication technology (NSA, Snowdown). It is no longer a matter of numerical supremacy in soldiers, tanks and ammunition, but to be able to make the right decisions on the right moment in order to make an efficient (first) strike.

In scientific and economic perspective, information seems to be the third essential factor, next to matter and energy. But especially in the field of economics information is something very special when you compare it with the other two. When I sell you a material good, you give me an amount of money in exchange for it. After the economic transaction you have the material good and I have the money. And then I have to go to work again in order to reproduce more of that material good in order to sell more of it. When you fill your car with gasoline, the oil company gets some dollars in exchange, but then that company has to replenish their supply by drilling for more oil, refine it and transport it. In both cases there is an economic exchange of matter or energy for money, and the matter and energy clearly switch owner. You are the owner or I am the owner, but not both of us. When I sell you a certain quantity of information at a certain price, then after the transaction you own the information, and I have some more money, but I still have the same amount of information as before the transaction: you own it, but I still own it too. I can sell that information to a third person, a fourth one, etc I did not lose the information; I can keep going on selling it. In this respect one can say that information is a very special form of commodity: it can be sold without the need for replenishment. And even when you ask a relatively modest price for it, you can become a very, very wealthy person like Bill Gates did with his system software and office products for PCs, but also like Umberto Eco or Dan Brown with the books they are writing, reaching millions of readers. On the next page you find a schematic overview of this discussion. Based on this overview one could assume that information is a third essential means of production, next to matter and energy. So one could ask oneself the question whether there exists something like the law of conservation of information or knowledge. You might try to burn all books on mathematics and science, but after a period of time the laws of mathematics and Nature will be rediscovered anyhow.

50

Science Time Matter E=mc Laws of conservation

Economy Means of production Who is rich?

War Why Means of

Land, serfs

Aristocracy, landlords Oil sheiks, Rockefellers

Territory

Clubs, swords, spears, bows and arrows Energy-powered weapons

Energy

Energy sources

Control over energy resources

??? ??? Information (Knowledge) Bill Gates Force a worldview upon the people (New World Order)

Satellites, smart weapons, cyber-soldiers

What is still missing in this scheme is wisdom and vision, as knowledge is not the same as wisdom: knowledge without wisdom and vision leads to nothing or can even be contra productive. Some ancient wisdom: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Treat your fellow human beings as you would like to be treated yourself. Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained. Lao Tzu

51