A 12-hour Workday as a Solution to the Demographic Problem?

The media have opened the Overton window, starting to discuss the feasibility of switching to a 12-hour workday.

Since current politicians are not eager to embrace the new topic against the backdrop of Dmitry Medvedev’s recent proposal to reduce the working day to 4 hours, they suggest that veteran capitalist workers evaluate the possible innovation.

For example, Gennady Grigoryevich Onishchenko, the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of Russia, an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a doctor of medical sciences, and even (somewhat unexpectedly) a Hero of Labor of the Donetsk People’s Republic, supported the idea of Russians switching to a six-day workweek with a 12-hour workday, recommending that this be done in a differentiated manner.

The 75-year-old native of Kyrgyzstan, Gennady Onishchenko, of course, did not witness the beginning of the 20th century, when Central Asian workers were exploited 24/7 and those who dropped out were replaced by new ones. However, it’s possible that the stories of his elders, heard in childhood, left a strong impression on his academic mind. Onishchenko, who is also a member of the Presidium of the All-Russian public organization “League of Nation’s Health”, simply proposes to bring legislation in line with reality: “A part of our economy has long since switched to such a schedule … they not only work on Saturday, but also on Sunday, and round-the-clock work is going on. As for all other industries, at least most of them can do this in principle.”

According to Onishchenko, the mining and processing industries “can easily switch to a six-day workweek of 12 hours”. And in general, “we need to work more so that the country does not fall into a recession”. However, not a single word was said about the trillions of bankers and other financial speculators, on whom the entire country actually works and whose sleep is carefully guarded by the Ministry of Finance, refusing to introduce additional taxes on the financial sector.

At the same time, it is proposed to definitely pay compensation and give workers maximum opportunities for recovery after work. After all, there are not only the second 12 hours in a day, but also a whole Sunday.

The proposal to increase the working week was made by billionaire Deripaska. In his opinion, such measures will help to adapt faster to external constraints and accelerate economic transformation.

However, it seems that there will be no need to adapt to external constraints if we start real economic development of the country. The development of the real sector at the expense of significantly scaling back the financial sector, which drains more than 90% of the money. And the interest rate on loans should be reduced. If the topic of economic sovereignty and technological leadership is still on the agenda.