Comment Doesn't understand basic economics! (Score 1) 472
The reason this sounds stupid is because it's forgetting basic laws of supply and demand, it has nothing to do with employees being "mean".
As an employee I have a supply of 168hrs/week. Various activities compete for that time, such that I'm willing to provide up to 40 to someone in exchange for some money. My 40 hours are in the same market as tons of other people that are capable of doing my job. If there are two of us competing for the same job and I'm willing to provide only 16, but someone else is willing to work 40, they're likely to get the job, as it's easier to train one person than two (and on top of that government regulations make it expensive to have more people).
Though not impossible, I find it hard to believe that we'll get to a point where I'm willing to work 16/week but someone else won't provide a better offer, it would take a lot of changes, and it would take a shift in either regulation or market forces. What's in it for my employee? Only if my 16 hrs are worth as much as my competitor's 40 would it make sense, or if those 16 hrs were significantly cheaper than the competition's 40.
For now, 40 is a number that the market (and regulations, of course) have roughly settled on.