Is a 32 Hour Work Week a Good Idea?

0:00This episode sponsored by HomeBase. HomeBase is built for small businesses trying to do it all. The neighborhood coffee shop, the local gym, the family run restaurant. With HomeBase, you can schedule your team, track time, run payroll, and manage hiring from one easy app. So you can spend less time chasing time sheets and more time running the business your customers love. More than 150,000 small businesses already use HomeBase to keep their teams on track. Start free at joinhomebase.com. HomeBase, built for small businesses that do it all. 617-266-68-68-68 is the number. Okay, a lot of reaction to my debate with Bill from Sudbury, Moonbad Bill. Bolshevik Bill, as I call him. This is from Dave on Messenger, our western PA constitutionalist correspondent. He lives out in the Pittsburgh area. Jeff, Bill from Sudbury

1:01is a blanking grifter. Yeah, but Dave, I would say even more. He is a grifter, but he's a parasite. And that's what you, that's the argument he's making. When I asked him, point blank, how much do you pay in taxes? He won't answer because he doesn't pay taxes. Because he's a, you know, a welfare debtbeat. So you see, notice, as he said, once you pay your taxes, it doesn't belong to you anymore. It's not your money. It's the government's money. And what's the government's money for for people like me? So you see, I have to send him and all of us. We have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars in taxes to put food on his table, a roof over his head to get him his free health insurance because he's probably on Medicaid. Okay. And his welfare cash payments is EBT cards. His, by the way, his Obama cell phone, which calls into the show on. He's a mooch.

2:09He's a parasite. Honestly, he's a thief. What he's, he's an able-bodied individual who doesn't want to work. And so he'd rather live off the work, the sweat of the brow, the labor of other people like you and me instead of getting a freaking job. And notice, he's entitled, you know, they look at the Democrat mentality. It's communism. It's not your money. And I'm like, well, it's my labor. It's your labor. Basically, the average taxpayer in America, okay? Middle working class taxpayer, about 50% of your income goes to taxes. You know what that means in plain English? For the first six months of the year, you're solely working for the government. I know the way it's laid out, you keep some of your money. And it's distributed over the whole year. But what I'm saying is if 50% of your income goes to the government, local state federal, that means for

3:11half of the year, because you're working all year, half of the year, you're basically working for the government. Now, you tell me, and by the way, when you're working for the government, you're working for people like Bill. And notice, when I said, how come illegal aliens can get 50, 60, 70,000 dollars, no problem. But I want 5,000 of my own money back. No, keep sending the money to the illegals. And somehow this shister is trying to convince me, almost try to morally browbeat me into saying, shut up and keep paying 50% of your income to me and to other deadbeats and to the illegals. Because somehow I get more, think about this, I get a hundred thousand dollars worth of services in exchange for my hundred thousand dollars that I pay in taxes. Are you insane?

4:12I can barely get them to pick up my trash once a week. The roads suck. I get no government handouts whatsoever. I get nothing unlike him. I don't get free food. I don't get free electricity. I don't get free housing. I don't, I don't get free healthcare. I pay for my freaking healthcare. The only thing I get are the schools and believe me, it's no bargain. Okay, my kids aren't getting, I mean, I love the teachers that my parents at schools don't get me wrong. But you know, they're not getting an elite private education. It's public education. It is what it is. So that's it. That's what I get. They're making minimum $90,000 a year profit off of my money. I don't know what this guy's talking about. Now, I'm a citizen. I believe in paying taxes. But this is confiscatory because the problem is half the population now pays zero federal

5:19income taxes, zero. People like Bill and Sudbury are zero. Illegals are zero. So half of the country us are paying for everything. We're subsidizing the other 50% and what the Democrats do and it's a smart, it's a smart scam. I'll admit it is they keep bribing people to vote for them because you see ultimately it's not their money. It's our money. So tax from Jeff Kooner, tax from Sandy, tax from Mike, tax from Kooner country, and then use our money, our wealth, our labor, our income to pay and subsidize for government handouts and programs to people who don't pay any taxes. This episode sponsored by Homebase. Homebase is built for small businesses trying to do it all.

6:21The neighborhood coffee shop, the local gym, the family run restaurant. With Homebase, you can schedule your team, track time, run payroll, and manage hiring from one easy app. So you can spend less time chasing time sheets and more time running the business your customers love. More than 150,000 small businesses already use Homebase to keep their teams on track. Start free at joinhomebase.com. Homebase, built for small businesses that do it all. Okay, I promise lines are jammed. I'm going to go to the phones, but I want to ask all of you. And this is now going to be front and center for much of the next 55 days until November 3rd. On the one hand, Trump is laying out a vision of an energy independent America, with secure borders, with a booming private sector economy, $5,000 dividend check to every adult

7:22American citizen. In other words, a pro middle working class country with a vibrant, strong free market. This is now what the Democrats are going to offer a 32 hour work week. The Democrats now, this is their vision on top of Medicare for all, abolished the borders, abolished the IRS, abolished prisons, defund the police, raised every once taxes across the board. We're looking at trillions of dollars in massive spending. It's going to be inflation like it was under Biden. But on top of all of that, this is now what they believe is the next step in their democratic socialist revolution. They want to imitate what they believe has been happening in some European countries, socialist European countries. Listen now to Bernie Sanders. He has sponsored a bill that now is picking up a lot of support among Democrats, both in the Senate and

8:27in the House. And this is now what they're going to run on. This is one of their key promises going into November 3rd. Slash the 40 hour work week to a 32 hour work week. Roll cut 80 mic. The sad reality is Americans now work more hours than the people of any of the wealthy nation. A lower work week, 32 hour work week. This is not a radical idea. But one of the issues that we have got to talk about is stress in this country. Now, he says Americans work too much that we are overworked and that we need to work a lot less. He further says that because of the advance of AI, AI is making companies and America much more his words, not mine, productive and efficient. And so because we're becoming productive, more productive, more efficient, well, he says Americans

9:31should benefit from AI. How? By slashing the work week from 40 hours to 32 hours. AOC, they're all running with this now, but listen now to AOC saying, yeah, you know, she's basically in, she's endorsing Bernie's proposal saying, um, work only one job, work only 32 hours a week because Americans suffer from too much stress and they need to rest. Roll cut 81 mic. We the people of the United States of America demand that one job with no need for overtime should be enough for our most basic needs, which also include rest. So there it is. So now they're going to tell us one we should take a nap. All right. So, um, let me ask all of you, do you support a 32 hour work week,

10:34government mandated 32 hour work week? This is now what the Democrats are going to run on. This is now another, a top of Medicare for all and everything else I've laid out. This is another one of their central planks. Now, let me just give you my position quickly and then I want to go to the phones. This is going to be a disaster. This is going to be an absolute disaster. And what I find amazing is this has been an idea that socialists, democratic socialists, communists have been pushing for a long time, so much so to show you how long this idea has been around. When I was in high school back up in Canada, I had a history teacher in the 11th grade, no, the 10th grade in the 10th grade who ran for parliament up in Canada for the new democratic party. They're called the NDP. They're basically Canada's socialist party. And while instead of

11:38teaching history, he hardly taught us history, he was trying to indoctrinate us into socialism, but I'll never forget one of his in one class in particular. He was going on about the glories of exactly this, the, you know, the 32 hour work week that Americans should be working only, sorry, Canadians, he said, and Americans as well, he thinks everybody should only be working four days a week, not five days a week, but four days a week. And he said, this way, you'd have a three day weekend instead of a two day weekend. And also by having people work less, this would enable other people, if you can believe this, to work as well, because somebody's got to work that Friday. And so he thought it was a brilliant solution to unemployment, if you can believe this, and that this would make just so improve people's lives that were entitled to work only 32,

12:44and not 40 hours. Now I put up my hand, this was in, as I said, grade 10, what was I, 15, 16 years old. And right away, I'm like, this is so great. I mean, I was a Reagan supporter even then. I loved Ron, and he hated me for it. I was the only one in class, huge Reagan guy named him, by the way, fascist, fasciano, which he hated. But anyway, I said, you know, Mr. Fashiano, why stop the 32 hours? I mean, by your logic, why a four day work week, why not a three day work week? Hell, why not a two day work week? In fact, why don't we just not work at all? And of course, I got a very upset. And then I said, you see, the problem with this idea, is you're trying to tell people how many hours they can work. I said, my father works 50, 60,

13:4470 hours a week. He gets paid overtime once he works more than 40 hours a week. Why are you telling my father that he doesn't have the right, the freedom, the liberty, to work hard so he can provide a much better life for his family? Basically, I said, what you're trying to push is a socialistic dictatorship. You're trying to have a command and control economy. I'm giving almost a verbatim what I said to him. Like Bill in Sudbury, he started to rant and rave against Reagan, against America, against Capitalism, about he'd never answered my questions because he had no answer. I said, what gives you the right to take away people's basic freedoms and liberties? If they want to work 40 hours or 45 hours or 50 hours or 60 hours, why are you limiting their horizons? Why do you want us to all be the same?

14:53What's wrong with success? What's wrong with hard work? What's wrong with seeking to achieve and to strive? Now, and by the way, I said, this is going to wreck the Canadian economy. Anyway, so this is my, I'm against this for many reasons. Let me tell you right away. This will destroy the American economy. Think about this. You want workers now to work four days a week, 32 hours, but with the same pay and benefits if they work 40 hours a week. Well, that means that's 20% more in costs to every plumbing contractor, every business, every, I don't care, what business you're in. Suddenly now an employer has to pay 20% more for a worker to work eight hours less.

15:55He's got to pay for that extra 20%. He's got to hire somebody to work on a Friday or a weekend or whatever. So now what's going to happen is he's going to be forced to hire more people, pay a lot more. He can't, the cost itself is going to bankrupt the employer. I've got 10 workers. They're working 40 hours a week. Now I got to pay the same 10 workers for 32 hours a week. Well, who's going to make up the difference in 20% difference? I've lost 20% of their productivity and their work. I got to hire more people to make up for it. It's going to bankrupt me. There goes my profit margin. So number one, it's going to destroy almost every business in America. And then think about the cost of the entire economy. We want to start

16:55paying people to work less. So to be less productive, to be more lazy. And I'm sorry, but to me, this proposal is practically insulting. Don't tell me when I need a nap. Here, I'll just give it to you playing. If this becomes law, I can only do four shows a week, Monday to Thursday. I can't work on a Friday. Or if I work on a Friday, they have to pay me overtime and they may not want to pay me overtime. Well, I'm sorry. I want to work on Monday to Friday. I like having a show Monday to Friday. So, but just to show you, so what he's going to do is he's going to curtail my right and my freedom to work a full work week, to work five days a week so I can give you all a good show Monday to Friday. And in the end, he's going to force I heart to hire a second host to do a show on Friday,

18:00which I heart may say I may not be able to afford. I'm just giving you my example. And you know what ends up happening? AI takes over the show and you had a robot for a talk show host. Okay, just very, very quick. This is from Larry on messenger. Jeff, he makes a great point. Jeff, isn't it ironic? Bernie Sanders hasn't had a real job his entire adult life. And now he's saying Americans work too much. I swear, these socialists, I'm telling you, these Bolsheviks, you're the Yelafriukri, you know, he's completely right. Like Bernie's going to lecture us that we're working too much. This guy, you know, it's like Bill inside. Oh, of course, Bill and Sudbury, the guy who doesn't work, the guy who sits home and collects welfare, 32 hour work week. Americans work, but they need to nap. They need to rest, as I hope he said.

19:04This is from 603 on message on the text line. Forgive me. 70470, 7, 0, 4, 7, 0, Jeff. So AOC and Bernie's proposal to cater to leftist voters laziness by giving them a 32 hour work week. Isn't the type of quote unquote payoff to gain votes. You know, i.e. bribery, you know, like Bill and Sudbury, so $5,000, your price to buy you off. I guess what, giving you in it, well, he doesn't work, but if there's a Democrat out there, that's working. So what, to give you Friday off or Monday off, that's your price. That's your price, even though it's your employer that's going to eat the costs. Don't you love these socialist Democrats? They're always so generous with other people's money. So I want to ask you,

20:10it is the Kooner Country poll question of the day sponsored by Mario's, Mario's quality roofing citing and windows. Do you think Americans should move to a 32 hour work week? A, yes. B, no. You know, my position, I am a hell no, but I mean, you want to talk about cratering the economy. Oh, this will do it. You want to lose jobs? You want to lose benefits? You want to, you know, you want to see mass unemployment? This, this is how you do it. So far, by the way, it's, it's one third, just under one third, 32.6% of you say yes, 67% of you, basically it's two thirds, say no. So one third of Kooner Country wants a 32 hour work week. Two thirds are against it.

21:14617-266-6868. You can vote on our webpage, WRKO.com slash Kooner, WRKO.com slash Kooner, KUH, and is a national ER. You can also vote via X. And yes, I was very active on X last night. My handle there all one word at the Kooner report, at the Kooner report, KUH, and is a national ER, Dan in New Hampshire. Dan, I know you've been waiting patiently. Thank you and welcome. Thanks for taking the calls, Jeff. My pleasure. It's my, it's my choice. If I want to work 32 hours a week, I'm not in the position that I'm in because I've worked 32 hours a week. I've put in a full effort my entire life and then some just like you and many of our listeners and we should not be

22:14told that 32 hours a week isn't our choice. If you want to work it fine, you want to do that, that's your choice fine, but I can't see success by doing that. And to hit a couple of other points, you know what the agenda, the liberal left, the socialist, the communist, and then the eventual dictator. You know what that is? That is the completely dismantle much like they did in the first term to Trump. Every positive thing that he ever did. And that's exactly what this is because bottom line is who the hell is going to want to invest in America? If everybody is working 32 hours a week, they'll pull back out of that. And not only that, the police, oh, well, we got to do away with that. Oh, yeah, we need another, we don't want the Senate. Oh, we want to rename the presidency. We'll call them the grand pool bar. They will completely cause a catastrophe. And in that catastrophe, it'll be an economic collapse financially, morally and socially. And what will

23:20they enter in much like that? You know, we used to think about all the transformation of America. Well, now it's laid out right in front of us. Socialism, communism, and eventual dictator. And was not your decision. Amen. Amen. Dan, look, they, they want to confiscate our wealth. They want to confiscate our taxes. They now want to tell us how many hours a week we can work. They want to cap us at 32. And if we do work more than 32, they're going to force the employer to pay overtime. Even though many employers have said, I can't, I just, I can't. I mean, employers, many of them, you know, they go on about the billionaires and, you know, fine, yeah, the billionaires can probably afford it. But the heart, the heart and soul, the backbone of the American economy, a small business, small, medium-sized businesses, that's the heart of the American economy.

24:25And if you're going to force them to pay people full benefits, full wages, 40 hours, and say, oh, but only for a 32-hour work week, they're going to go broke. I'll tell you right now, I mean, I'm just, just to use my own example, I was telling this mic off air, I go, Mike, if this thing passes, if they win in November and they managed to run this thing through or override Trump's veto, I said, Mike, I hate to sell this to you, but you're out of a job, man. You know, I think Sandy may be out of a job. I may be out of a job, but Mike and Sandy are most likely going to be out of a job. So it's going to affect every industry. Why? Because I'm telling you, I heart can't, it's not a question of being selfish. They just, they're going to say, look, I can't pay for extra employees to work on the corner report. I have to pay somebody to work on a Friday, and I, or I have to pay a lot more and over time. We can't afford it. And, and let me,

25:31let's say I'm forced to work 32 hours a week, but they let me work five days a week. Okay, I promise, Dan, I'm coming back to you. So that means basically six, six hours and maybe 20 minutes a day. And I can't work any more than that. Well, four hours is just the show. I mean, that's literally from six to 10. So that means you're only leaving me with two hours and 20 minutes a show prep. Or, you know, like what Sandy and Mike do, hunt down clips, hunt down stories. I'm going to give you a subpar inferior show. Believe me, I work a hell of a lot more than 40 hours a week to put out a good product. And Mike busses butt and Sandy bus her butt. They're not working 40 hours. They're working more than 40 hours. So if you're going to force us to work 32 hours, I'm telling you, even if I can work Monday to Friday, which I doubt, Bernie wants a four day work week. Okay, that's going to be in the bill. But let's just say they make it to five.

26:33Six hours a day, six hours and 20 minutes, whatever it is, I'm telling you, it's going to affect my, the quality of the show, the, the work ethic of the show, all of the extra work that we put in. If this is going to affect not just me, it's going to affect every sector of the economy. You're going to get a lot less and pay a lot more. Now, to your point that this is communism, you're completely right here. I want to play a cut and get your reaction done. This is now, you know, they got rid of Platner. So now the Democrats have put up their former Senate president. This guy called Troy Jackson. He's now mains Democrat Senate nominee for the, you know, Democrat nominee for the US Senate. By the way, he married his second cousin. You can't make this up. He married his second cousin, had kids with the second cousin.

27:33To me, that's incest, but let that go. Okay. So his personal life is almost as bad as Platners. Troy Jackson now is telling voters, you put me in the Senate. We, the Democrats, vow we're going to have the government seize people's private property. They're coming now for your homes. So if you rent an apartment, you rent a room, whatever, they want to go after you and they want to take that home and make it a quote unquote government co-op. Listen now, this is Troy Jackson. Again, you want to talk about bribery? But again, it's our money. They're bribing their constituents with. Or in this case, our homes, our property. Roll cut 108, Mike. I mean, I, I mean, Christy Matson was talking just a while ago about people paying $850

28:34just for their lot rental. I don't know what it's going up to here, but I mean, I don't know how anyone does that. And it's not fair. It's not right to be. And then the other thing that I do hear a lot about too is how they won't do anything for services. And that is completely, you know, unfair and not right. And we have to, we have to make that change. I feel strongly that, you know, if needed, the state should be able to come in, take these places over. Some people will say that that's insane. But until the people get a chance to, you know, set up to off or whatever, there should be a way to hold these so that you didn't, you don't see the private equity coming in and making the killing on these parties. Unbelievable. So basically, they want to take over your home, your rental property. If you rent out to trailers or whatever where people live in these mobile homes, they want the government to seize that. This is the definition of communism.

29:40But now they're not just coming after your money and your freedoms. Now they're coming after your home, they're coming after your private property. Dan, we're staring at a dictatorship. Am I wrong? You are 100,000 percent correct. We're talking about an eventual dictatorship here. You are not going to have any choices. You're not going to have any freedoms. You're not going to have any independence. In fact, I even believe that they could turn AI into the docks side and even, especially because of the powers to be they can do what they want with it, but they could turn that against us, which is what? The smartest technology that we ever have come up in mankind, that could be turned against us too with the wrong leadership. And I'm going to tell you right now, I work hard for my property. You've worked hard for your property. Do you know when you go down

30:42to a 32-hour work week, they're giving you a Friday so you can get the soup line and basically get your little allotment that they're going to give you because you're going to need a day to you know to supplement yourself. So that's why they really want the you know the four-day work week because they want to give you a Friday so you can stand in line and you will stand in line eventually you will. And then way I mean do you remember COVID? Do you remember you couldn't go to the beach? You couldn't go to a birthday party? You couldn't go to a funeral? You couldn't go and get your hair cut. You couldn't do a damn thing and I don't forget that. And that was the usher in of the idea that they could get away with what they're pulling today. And I'm telling you right now I'm a free American. I want to remain a free American. If I want to work 32 hours a week that's my choice not their choice and believe me what are you going to do? Just take my home and then all of a sudden move me into subsidized housing after a lifetime of hard work. You think I'm

31:45going to take that on the chin? No I'm not. But let me tell you something they're going to be also powerful. They're going to have this AI working for them in a dark way when it could be used in a very good way. They'll use it against us and quite honestly Jeff will never never ever ever regain our freedom independence ever ever again. It'll be gone. This election in November every every conservative anyone who loves this country, even if you're a liberal your mind is your mind has been lost. You know what it's going to be like. You'll be standing in the same lines that I'm going to be standing and ain't going to be any different for you. You're going to have to live by their drum beat and that's the way it's going to be and you're not going to like it because you made a bad choice and you brought the country down. Bingo. I'm sick and tired of it. Bingo. No look, Dan, thank you. Very passionate and you are 1000% correct. Dan, thank you so much for that call. No, look, just because members of Congress, what four day work week? We're lucky if they work

32:50Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I'm not kidding. That's usually when they're you know during the week when they're in session, they usually work Tuesday to Thursday. That's it. So just because they work three days a week, maximum four days a week, those lazy bumps. What? You think we are going to force us to all be four days, four days a week? Just because Bernie can barely put in four days a week for him. That's working too hard like these members of Congress. Oh, he's right. Look, if you want to work less, honestly, God bless you. You know, if you can afford it and you know, you have the finances or the resources or you saved enough money or you know, you want to slow down a little bit in life. Honestly, God bless you. But don't tell me that I can only work 32 hours a week. If I want to work 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 hours a week, that's my right. That's your right. Can you have sure?

33:51The whole 5,000 checks. Yes, the $5,000 dividend check that you saw Bill in Sudbury. He doesn't think it's our money, Kim. You pay taxes, but it's not yours. It's bills. I wanted to speak to that too. If that's still okay. Yes, go ahead. Now, I've had a couple of colonoscopies and I have to say, you don't, for anybody who fears having one, you don't feel a thing when you get out. You'd never even know they were in the back door. And but one, one of my moms are one of my moms cousins who back in the old days when they would do them in the office and you didn't get fully knocked out. She was totally petrified. One of my mom's

34:54old cousins was totally petrified of having a colonoscopy and she put it off forever. Then she finally did end up having colon cancer. So you had to go through a whole bag thing. But her husband didn't have a sense of smell. So the wife had the bag. The husband didn't have the sense of smell. So the husband took care of the bag. So they were kind of a nice little, nice little couple of it, you know, complimenting. Don't, you don't, you don't, you don't, you know, can't, I can't, I gotta say just, I promise I'll let you finish your point. I gotta say this. This is what I said to the nurses afterwards and they were incredible and just incredible. I gotta say the doctor was great. The nurses were great. I said, you know, it's brutal prep. You got to drink this liquid every 10 minutes, eight ounces. You could torture people with that.

35:56You could break them. I'm telling you, it's, oh, does it taste horrible? And then of course, you know, you're emptying your stomach. I don't want to get too graphic. And so you feel horrible. So I go, it's brutal prep. But then it's followed by I think the best, deepest one hour sleep, you're ever going to have in your entire life. When they knocked me out yesterday, oh, you know that deep black dark sleep where you're, I'm talking, you're sucking serious air. You know, you're really in a deep sleep when they, and I couldn't believe it. They're like, okay, Mr. Kooner. I'm like, well, call me Jeff. Please, I'm not that important. Okay, Jeff, you are about to go to sleep now. And I'm like, really? Because I'm like, I feel wide awake. And then right away, my mind is like, what if I'm awake through the whole procedure? Like this is, you know, I'm a hapocondriker. So I'm, I'm panicking. And the moment I thought that, I was out. I'm out. And then I just hear that, you know, Mr. Jeff,

37:03Jeff, the procedures over Jeff, are you awake? Jeff, it went very well. The procedures over. And I swear my mind, all I'm thinking is no, no, please don't wake me up. Don't wake me up. This is the best sleep I've had in a long time. No, Kim, what I told grace afterwards is what they did to me in that operating room, that whatever, that's procedure room, you know, up to you know, where that's what the Democrats want to do to America, if they get elected in November. Okay, one mother colonoscopy and no anesthesia. You understand? Get a, get a, give it to us good and hard. Kim, your final, your, your other point on the $5,000 dividend check to every adult citizen. Are you four or against? I now meet now back when I when my husband and I, you know, raising our kids both,

38:04both of them are now out on their own and doing great. But if you could actually see like a number going down, if you, if you, if you turn to $5,000 down, if you could actually see that the national, if they could turn it over to the national debt like paying off your mortgage early, you know, I want to pay an extra here and there. If, if a, if people could actually see that the national debt were going down, if you turn down this $5,000, if you're not paycheck to paycheck, I think you'd be happily surprised at how many people, you know, mega would actually say, no, I'm not paycheck to paycheck. If you could actually see that the national debt would go down by you turning down this $5,000, because I mean, mega, I mean, I have brittle bone disease and I've

39:04broken, I've broken toes and I didn't turn down one day of being out of work. If you could actually see that the national debt were going to go down, if you turn down the $5,000 check, I think you'd actually be happily surprised at how many of, at least mega would it, I'm sorry. If that, no, I think Kim, Kim, you're making a very interesting point that if President Trump said, look, I'll tell you what, here's your $5,000 check. But if you don't want it or you prefer that it go towards paying down the national debt, as you put it like our national mortgage, I think you're right. I think many mega supporters would say, you know what, I'll forgo the $5,000, put it towards paying off the debt. I agree with you. I think many mega supporters, Trump supporters would do that.