Switzerland is to hold a landmark vote on a right-wing party’s proposal to restrict the nation’s population to 10 million, amid divisions over immigration.
The proposal, put forward by the country’s largest political grouping the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), would require the government to act before the population – currently at 9.1 million – rises to the proposed 10 million upper limit.
If the vote, due to be held on June 14, is passed, the government would have to refuse entry to newcomers including asylum seekers and the families of foreign residents once the population reaches 9.5 million.
If the population hits 10 million, the government would be forced to end its free-movement agreement with the European Union (EU), which is Switzerland’s largest trading partner.
Eh. This is malarkey. Have you ever noticed how new technologies never seem to reduce the number of hours worked? Office computers and the internet didn’t reduce the work week. They did free up time; the work simply expanded to fill the available hours. Things that were once taken care of with a one-page typewritten memo are now handled by 100 page reports with charts and graphics. Analyses became ever more complicated and elaborate. It’s the bullshit jobs phenomenon.
And this is also why I don’t worry at all about decreasing population. As labor becomes more scarce, companies will simply be forced to cut back on the amount of bullshit fluff work in their workflows. There is a ton of useless fluff built into the modern workplace. That waste is only possible because businesses have been used to having very cheap labor for a very long time. When markets force wages higher, companies are forced to become more efficient and to cut back on the number of bullshit jobs in the economy.
Realistically, we could produce all of the things we currently do even if we cut the labor force by 30%. Maybe we won’t be able to hire as many vice presidents of social media marketing strategy. But we’ll get along just fine.