Peter Zeihan: Can the Six-Day Work Week Save Greece?

August 15, 2024

From Peter Zeihan: How would you feel if you had a beautiful view of the coastline, but could only ever get out by the beach once per week? Well, now that employers can mandate a six-day work week in Greece, many are faced with that exact problem.

We’re all aware of Greece’s economic struggles over the past few decades, but that instability has been amplified by demographic problems. As the Greek government attempts to balance out economic activity (made up of consumption, production, capital and labor), they’ve chosen labor as the factor that will have to compromise. Obviously a six-day work week is going to piss off some people, but what else can they do?

We’ve seen countries like Japan, South Korea, Italy and Germany face similar problems and combat them in different ways, but the outcome for each country is still uncertain. As for countries who haven’t hit the decision point, like the US and Mexico, they can observe each of these countries’ tactics and draw learnings from each.

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