Sean Hannity doesn’t think you’re spending enough time at work. In a recent discussion on his talk show, he suggested that Americans who are struggling financially just need to work more. Much more. Like, almost every waking hour of their lives.
This is crazy. Americans already have to spend more time at work than their counterparts in economically comparable countries.America is the only industrialized country– and is one of the only countries of any kind – whose citizens are not protected by law any Paid vacation days.
Most Americans work in non-union jobs where they can be fired without recourse. In the U.S.—as opposed to comparable countries that have nationalized their health insurance system—unemployment means you and your dependents lose their health insurance.
All of this is a recipe for many people to work day after day, month after day, at a job they hate, without a bad week of paid time off. If you’re lucky enough to have a job with clear hours, not juggling the hustle and bustle of the gig economy with two or three.
Not surprisingly, Americans are more likely than citizens of other developed countries Report A feeling of “high pressure”. We have almost worked ourselves to death. So why does self-confessed populist Sean Hannity think we need to work harder?
“This is what I do”
“Maybe not 40 hours a week,” Hannity advises“Join the rest of us — work 70, 80, 90 hours. I know people don’t like to hear that advice, but that’s what I do.”
I double checked this assertion to see how many hours his talk show has (The Sean Hannity Show) and his Fox News show (Hannity) Actually runs weekly. Radio shows run for three hours in the late afternoon, while TV shows run for a full hour in the evening. Oh, and both shows are only aired Monday through Thursday.
So, 16 hours a week.quite a bit The Sean Hannity Show Spending on taking calls rather than doing pre-prepared material doesn’t mean both shows don’t need a lot of prep time each week.
I’d expect the vast majority of pre-production to be done by his crew, but for the sake of argument, let’s assume Hannity personally does a full hour of prep for every hour he airs.even That That adds up to only four days a week, for a total of 32 hours of work. That’s even better than the 35-hour work week of French workers.
Hannity’s dystopian vision
So why Hannity thinks the average American should at least work twice Statutory French work week?
Assuming he doesn’t also drive Uber on weekends to make ends meet, Hannity’s present tense “This is what I DoThe claim is rather dubious. He also said that when he was working as a contractor decades ago, he tried to stay on the job site for the time allowed. That part is harder to check. Let’s go ahead and assume what he said was The truth. The bigger question is why he thinks anyone should Have Live like that.
“…because the law limits how many hours a week you can work for any one employer, anyone receiving Sean’s financial advice is commuting not only from home, but between different workplaces.“
Even at the low end of Hannity’s suggested range, 70 hours per week means you work 10 hours per day per week. At the top end, 90 hours means you work 13 hours a week from Monday to Saturday, then on Sunday you can relax and only work 12 hours. (I’m assuming Sean, who stands by his Christian piety, would choose Sunday as a comparative rest day.)
As left-leaning commentator Kristal Ball pointed out in an article discuss About Hannity’s labor advice with her podcast co-host Kyle Kulinski, it’s a hell of a message for one of the best-known advocates of allegedly “pro-family” conservative politics.When should workers do Look If everyone followed Hannity’s advice, what would happen to their families?
Assuming you sleep 8 hours a night, a 13-hour workday will give you three full hours, even if you work remotely. If your job involves physical labor, I think if you find a way to teleport to work and back instantly, you can get a full three hours. But if you live half an hour away from work, you only have two hours a day to prepare and eat, brush your teeth, buy groceries, and say hello to loved ones.
many people of course many longer commute than that.And since the law limits how many hours a week you can work for any one employer, anyone taking Sean’s financial advice is not only commuting from home, but between different workplaces.
Unfortunately, we live in a country where a lot of people live Yes like this. But they don’t have to. We could raise the minimum wage to an amount that people can actually live on (with only one job), change labor laws to make it easier to unionize, provide everyone with basic social services like universal health care, and maybe even mandate a week for the planet A paid vacation or two near every other country on the list somehow manages to do it.
As a socialist, I actually want to go further than this minimum. Everything I just said will only elevate America to the level of a more normal capitalist country.
But Sean Hannity has spent his life opposing minimal political life.He only spent four years hauling water for Donald Trump, while the Trump administration hyped it up deregulation and break the unionBefore that, he was an apologist for the more “pro-business” George W. Bush.
It’s no wonder that the best advice Hannity can give working-class people is to dedicate more of their lives to corporate America and hope for the best. No wonder the Hannis of the world spend so much time promoting the distractions of the culture wars rather than their views on fundamental issues. Because he’s right – people “don’t like to hear” that their entire time on earth should be spent at work.
I wonder why not.
