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Tomorrow, at exactly 7:00 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. should emerge from the White House, walk to the Rose Garden and hold a press conference. During said conference, President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. should announce that he is declaring that, starting this year, and continuing forward until time itself no long exists, Thanksgiving is now a weeklong National Holiday. Every single employee in the United States is required by law to receive five paid days off, starting the Monday before Thanksgiving, and ending the Friday after, inclusive of those days. This PTO is to be paid out at 2 times the usual pay rate. The only people allowed to work during that time are medical emergency people, and like electricians if people’s power goes out.
In addition to this, President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. should also announce that every day from December 20th, to January 4th is now to be known as “National Winter Holiday.” While the pool of essential employees will be a bit larger for this one, there will be no one who does not have at least ten days off during this span of time. Those working will receive a nationally mandated 3x overtime hourly rate of pay, and 2x when on PTO. The rest of the country, even those who are not employed, also receive either 2x what they would normally make over that span, or $2,000, whichever is more.
Both holidays would have to be enforced with the most stringent of both legal and cultural penalties. Businesses that force non-essential employees to work during this time will receive massive fines, not just for the company, but against the individual bosses as well. In addition, lots of community-wide derision and boycotts against any business that crosses the line should be encouraged and supported monetarily by the government at the local, state, and federal levels.
This would change the world, and only for the better. The positives are tremendous, and this plan is almost entirely without negatives. It would increase happiness, lessen stress and the subsequent health problems that stress brings, encourage economic growth, make the holiday season bearable, and most importantly create a better cultural attitude toward work in the United States.
The holiday season is a tough time for many people. The cost of travel, presents, food, and all the sundries related to this time of year is often an unnecessary burden for many people. The answer of course, is not to cancel the holidays or declare them unimportant, but to lessen the burdens of those holidays. The increased pay, and increased time for travel, cooking, and preparing, helps do that tremendously.
The extra cash of course stimulates the economy, providing funds for people to buy things with, as well as something a little extra to keep and save. It also is great for workers as it would help keep wages high, while not increasing unemployment. Employers will be essentially forced to keep salaries and hourly rates high to attract employees who don’t want to quit right after their Holiday windfall. Truly a wonderful situation. Unions as well could bargain for higher holiday rates, if they’d so choose, and could use the Holiday cash to store money for future strikes and increased bargaining power. Strong unions make for a strong economy.
The benefits continue in other ways as well. The stress of the holidays, trying to visit family, cook, relax, etc, when you only have a day off is impossible for most people. These extra days would allow for a much calmer attitude toward the holidays, and much reduced stress levels. Busy parents would be able to get some time to themselves, families could reconnect, and travel would be much-less migraine inducing. This has long-term both individual and community-wide health benefits. COVID-19, both the disease and the stress caused by the pandemic has raised blood pressure levels across the US, as well as other anxiety, and stress-related health issues. The increased time off, and additional money, would help alleviate those conditions massively. While further comprehensive health care reform, and work reform, is certainly needed, this would go a long way to fixing those problems.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this would also change attitudes toward work in the United States. America as a state, has almost the singularly most unhealthy attitude about work in the world. The obsession with squeezing the last ounce of productivity out of people in the name of profit has people praising tyrant CEOs like Jeff Bezos who destroy their workers bodies and lives in the name of raising their share price a cent. Wait staff who refused to work for less than what they were worth in unhealthy conditions during the pandemic were castigated by many in the U.S. for being “lazy,” when those workers simply didn’t want to leverage their long-term health for a paltry short-term sum. These holidays would be the start of a cultural reprioritization in the U.S. away from the “grind mindset,” and toward a new healthier idea of work, something that must be done, but doesn’t need to be the sole, or most important focus in your life. The 40-hour work week should not be the thing that our society revolves around. It will be the death of us in the end.
As I was writing this, I was trying to think of any negatives of this plan. I couldn’t think of any. Or at least any serious ones. I’m sure there are plenty of dead-eyed, soulless “Staff Economists” at The Federalist or The American Enterprise Institute who think this is a bad plan, but all those folks have proven themselves to be completely unserious time and again so the productive thing would be to ignore them. The placing of the winter Holiday around Christmas should probably receive some pushback, but I think declaring it a “winter Holiday,” and the fact that it starts before and ends way after Christmas should alleviate some of the “putting Christ back in Christmas” complaints that this might get.
All in all this should be a plan that everyone gets behind. Call your senators. Your reps. Let’s get this ball rolling! We need you to stand up and show your true colors President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr!
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