Yes
That's what I was 'trying' to get to last night.
The Gov't would have to 'cut' spending if citizens hours were cut across the board to the lower hour standard - unless the hourly wages were adjusted up on the business and public sector's payrolls (taxpayer) back.
To put it another way, people live in different types of houses (sizes) and the towns property tax to reach a goal in order to pay for salaries, roads, schools, police, fire, etc.(This is assuming they have a budget - the country doesn't :>)
Say, all of a sudden, every house was wiped out and replaced by the same small house design - where once there were medium and large houses. Everything else stayed the same (with gov't increase spending) How much would property taxes be on those small houses?
If we all paid the same - how much would "Same" be in comparison to before?
That's what I meant about the standard 40 hour week(middle class tax), as with houses, some work less and some work more, some have more amenities and more land. But there is a median, taxes are structured for taxation goals - how would it work with a 'perfect world' 25 hour week?
>>That’s what I meant about the standard 40 hour week(middle class tax), as with houses, some work less and some work more, some have more amenities and more land. But there is a median, taxes are structured for taxation goals - how would it work with a ‘perfect world’ 25 hour week?
Going to a shorter work week requires several paradigm shifts. The first is “what do people do with the time off?” If they use the time off to drive around and spend money, then we’ll have a problem. If we spend the extra time volunteering, going to school, and actually raising our own kids for a change, then the time will be benficial to society.
The second is “pay people for what they do and not the hours they work.” This will take a lot of rethinking on the part of employees and employers. This is the hardest change.
The third is “learn to live on less”. People will need to live on less money when they work less hours, unless they are smart and productive. You are correct that the government will have a problem with that and will try to shift taxes accordingly. But, moving to a consumption tax instead of income tax does a lot to fix this problem.
Now, to the honest, there is as much chance of this working as there is for most Christians to behave like Christ. But the current system is destroying our humanity and has been for a long time. Perhaps the two are related, since a person who works as cog in a machine for 40+ hours a week, with another 10 hours stuck in traffic driving to their job as a cog at the same time as all the other cogs has a hard time getting in touch with their spirituality.
If we could solve those 3 problems I listed, we might just become better people than the industrial robots we are today.