A reduction in working hours does not equate to a reduction in productivity.  We should be striving to minimize time spent working while maximizing productivity as a basic goal of capitalistic society.<p>Also this old argument about reduced work incentives is becoming increasingly invalid as an expansion in permanent structural unemployment due to automation, hyperefficiency, and globalized labor markets is spelling the end of industrial labor to begin with.  Meaning that there simply are not enough jobs to go around, regardless of incentive.  It&#x27;s one thing to chalk unemployment up to laziness in an era of abundant opportunity, it&#x27;s quite another in a post-industrial era of labor scarcity.