Here’s a fine song by Vancouver singer/songwriter Jeremy Fisher, a banjo-and-voice ditty called Built to Last. It comes to you courtesy of worklessparty.org, website of the Work Less Party, which sounds like a bunch of slackers but actually makes a good case for reducing unemployment and environmental damage by lowering the number of hours we are expected to work, here in North America. The case is laid out (in scattershot fashion) in books by the party’s founder, Conrad Schmidt. I’ve read the first, with the lovely title Workers of the World, Relax.
Places like Denmark, i’m told, have all but eliminated unemployment by going to a four-day work week. At first they had all the predictable worries about higher business costs and falling GDP, but reportedly the people love it. I know a lot of friends who would gladly take the cut in pay for a higher quality of life.
I liked Built to Last enough that i checked out Jeremy’ MySpace page. It has several more songs, plus some artful animation videos featuring the likes of Mel Gibson (co-starring with Jeremy in the unreleased film Passion of the Easter Bunny) and an inside scoop on the infamous Billy Bob Thorton meltdown with Jian Gomeshi on Q. Multi-talented guy!
Greg Blee 