Don't know about you but I feel like I hurtling towards 2012 at break neck speed.  My life has definitely sped up since I cut my working week to 4 days.  Don't know whether any of my old friends remember but back in the early eighties when unemployment was rampant, I suggested that everybody should work 4 days a week instead of 5 as an antidote to unemployment.  I argued that as well as sharing the work available it would mean we all would have more leisure time which in my simplistic mind would create more jobs etc. etc.

Most people loved the idea of only working 4 days but of course we'd have to take a pay cut which they didn't like.  I didn't mind I was still living with my mam, I could afford to take the hit.  Needless to say my idea was generally poo pooed.

But guess what, writing in The Times yesterday, billionaire tax dodger Richard Branson thinks "a "Four-day week could help to solve our unemployment problem".  He's going to have a word with Cam as well so watch this space.  Unfortunately can't link to the article (I read the paper copy) because of Murdoch's subscription regime but you can get the drift here.

It will be interesting to see how this one pans out.  30 years on from my original suggestion it's great for me.  I'm by no means wealthy, on the contrary, but I live an inexpensive lifestyle and once again I find myself in the fortunate position that I can afford the hit.  A lot of people can't get by on what they earn now though so although it might help the unemployment situation I can't see it helping pay their bills.

Whilst on my last blogging break George Monibot wrote an article about in 7 November's Guardian about the top 1% of earners being wealth destroyers (just been reminded about it by Louder Than War).  I particularly like the reference to studies of  Nobel economics prize winner, Daniel Kahnerman who confirmed what we all knew anyway that stockbrokers earn huge bonuses on the back of results that anybody could achieve by rolling dice (I bloody knew it, Luke Rhineheart was right all along!).

He quotes some interesting stats about unfairness and inequality.

"Between 1947 and 1979, productivity in the US rose by 119%, while the income of the bottom fifth of the population rose by 122%. But from 1979 to 2009, productivity rose by 80%, while the income of the bottom fifth fell by 4%. In roughly the same period, the income of the top 1% rose by 270%.

In the UK, the money earned by the poorest tenth fell by 12% between 1999 and 2009, while the money made by the richest 10th rose by 37%. The Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality, climbed in this country from 26 in 1979 to 40 in 2009."

Will be interesting to see how this one pans out as well.

Apologies for anybody who is waiting for my end of year run through (ha ha, only joking).  More tomorrow.