Would working hours actually decrease under socialism in the USSA? I would guess they would increase or stay the same as the labor appropriated from Americans by the bourgeoisie is significantly less than the labor appropriated from the global South. With the hickel study, I'd assume that to keep quality of life similar and to keep the nation relatively productive, 48 hour weeks might return.
Hickel touches on this. it really depends how much of the American economy is on bullshit like advertising, cops, and cars
Net-appropriated labour comprises approximately half of the total labour that provisions goods and services for Northern consumption. [...] To maintain current consumption, Northern populations would need to substantially increase their working hours (while also committing substantially more domestic land, materials and energy to production), which would be socially and politically difficult to achieve. It is plausible that people would prefer instead to forego some kinds of production (for instance, production of goods for elite consumption) or shift to forms of provisioning that require less labour (e.g. public transit instead of private cars).
IMO it'd be fine, the whole point of a planned economy is you can finally choose efficient modes of production. there's so much stupid shit to cut out (e.g. mass incarceration, private healthcare, most finance) and you don't need a reserve army of labor anymore.
On the other hand, large sectors of the US population are engaged in useless labor which could be eliminated free up a lot of labor power (office pmc types, ai, insurance industry etc) and similarly with types of labor which just service the elite (country club employees, many landscapers etc)
In my headcanon when I wrote this the USA collapsed in 89 instead of the USSR, so by the 2020s we've had thirty years of socialist development without the threat of capitalist encirclement forcing us to maintain a massive military. The Soviet and Chinese governments similarly have been able to disarm as fewer global conflicts have gone hot each decade, refocusing economic goals towards completing green projects and improving living conditions.
Also the USSA doesn't reach the same borders as the current USA, it's just the largest of a series of successor states including indigenous states in the southwest/hawaii/alaska.
Would working hours actually decrease under socialism in the USSA? I would guess they would increase or stay the same as the labor appropriated from Americans by the bourgeoisie is significantly less than the labor appropriated from the global South. With the hickel study, I'd assume that to keep quality of life similar and to keep the nation relatively productive, 48 hour weeks might return.
Hickel touches on this. it really depends how much of the American economy is on bullshit like advertising, cops, and cars
IMO it'd be fine, the whole point of a planned economy is you can finally choose efficient modes of production. there's so much stupid shit to cut out (e.g. mass incarceration, private healthcare, most finance) and you don't need a reserve army of labor anymore.
On the other hand, large sectors of the US population are engaged in useless labor which could be eliminated free up a lot of labor power (office pmc types, ai, insurance industry etc) and similarly with types of labor which just service the elite (country club employees, many landscapers etc)
In my headcanon when I wrote this the USA collapsed in 89 instead of the USSR, so by the 2020s we've had thirty years of socialist development without the threat of capitalist encirclement forcing us to maintain a massive military. The Soviet and Chinese governments similarly have been able to disarm as fewer global conflicts have gone hot each decade, refocusing economic goals towards completing green projects and improving living conditions.
Also the USSA doesn't reach the same borders as the current USA, it's just the largest of a series of successor states including indigenous states in the southwest/hawaii/alaska.