For The US, the New 29-Hour Work Week -- I Can't Make This Stuff Up

On October 9, 2012, I posted a commentary on "unintended consequences of ObamaCare." It looks like I hit the bull's eye!

From today's WSJ: health law spurs shift in hours.

Some low-wage employers are moving toward hiring part-time workers instead of full-time ones to mitigate the health-care overhaul's requirement that large companies provide health insurance for full-time workers or pay a fee.

Several restaurants, hotels and retailers have started or are preparing to limit schedules of hourly workers to below 30 hours a week. That is the threshold at which large employers in 2014 would have to offer workers a minimum level of insurance or pay a penalty starting at $2,000 for each worker.

The shift is one of the first significant steps by employers to avoid requirements under the health-care law, and whether the trend continues hinges on Tuesday's election results. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has pledged to overturn the Affordable Care Act, although he would face obstacles doing so.

But Americans are content/satisfied. We will see a Chavez outcome Wednesday morning. I define a "Chavez outcome" elsewhere.

********************

Additional WSJ links of interest today:

For blacks, the Pyrrhic victory of the Obama era:

Today, Asian-Americans are the nation's best-educated and highest-earning racial group. According to a Pew study released earlier this year, 49% of Asians age 25 and older hold bachelor's degrees, compared with 31% of whites and 18% of blacks. The median household income for Asians is $66,000, which is $12,000 more than white households and double that of black households. As with other groups, political clout has not been a precondition of Asian socioeconomic advancement.

There are a handful of prominent Asian-American politicians today, including Govs. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Nikki Haley of South Carolina, but Asians have tended to avoid politics compared with other groups. Between 1990 and 2000, for example, the number of elected officials grew by 23% for blacks but only by 4% for Asians. In 2008, Asians were significantly less likely than both blacks and whites to have voted.

The election of Barack Obama four years ago gave blacks bragging rights, but bragging rights can't close the black-white achievement gap in education or increase black labor-force participation or reduce black incarceration rates. A civil-rights leadership that encourages blacks to look to politicians to solve these problems is doing a disservice to the people they claim to represent.

This article reminds me of the joke about two hikers seeing a bear, with one of the hikers putting on his tennis shoes. And that's why I see tomorrow's election as a win-win.

Failure to stimulate: the redistribution recession: book review. "The Obama administration has expanded unemployment and thwarted recovery with unprecedented levels of government spending."

I didn't leave the Democrats. They left me.  "There is an anti-Israel movement among the rank and file, and the party no longer appears to value self-reliance, charity, and accountability."

A referendum on ObamaCare and liberty. "Without an immediate course change, the health-care law will become irreversible." It's already irreversible. There are too many good things about it. Including the 29-hour workweek. If the 29-hour workweek is "legalized," folks can start earning overtime pay at 30 hours. What a great country. Even better than the French 35-hour workweek.