On Fri, 23 Apr 2010 03:05:37 -0400, Ed Huntress wrote:

The assumptions were that the work week would be shortened to four days;
eventually less. More people would be required to fill a certain number
of man-hours of work.

I read somewhere that in France it is illegal to work overtime, and
people who do are fined. The French reasoning is that overtime means
that someone does extra work, and as a result the state will have to
pay unemployment benefits to other people who didn't get the job.

If true it's a weird system, but at least it's internally consistent.
It reminds me of the movie 'Brazil', describing a future dystopia in
which labor is a precious resource that people have to 'steal'.