Seriously though, if the US can’t even bite the bullet and go fully metric (at the current rate it’s being phases in, you’ll still be using cubits when Y3K is an issue) I can’t see this idea being worth serious consideration.

However, if Richard is keen on making “logical” changes to increase efficiency, then he could also consider:
- recycling all entertainment (music, TV, film etc) every ten years, to save the cost of producing all the “new” stuff each year.
- eating only tofu and rice, thus eliminating all the waste associated with producing meat, chocolate etc.
- banning all drugs, alcohol etc. (Oh, that was tried already, wasn’t it)
- making the speed limit 40 mph and building road vehicles that can’t exceed that limit (save fuel and road deaths)

Perhaps the best cost saving option is to get academics like Richard to get a grip on reality and stop wasting their time on “pie in the sky” theorising.

That being said, I think Mr. Henry is missing the big picture (I did as well when I first read the article). While it is easy to point out the benefits of such a change, when looking at all of the existing things that would need to also be changed would probably end up costing far more and would not break even for decades.

So like you said, probably focusing on how to automate or improve upon our current system is a better way to focus his energy.

I can say though that since I work directly with payroll in helping people with salary deferrals for their retirement plans it can be a big hassle. I have a payroll schedule pinned on the wall right next to my screen so I can keep track of all the various deadlines and paydays. Holidays can cause cut-offs to be bumped ahead or behind, sometimes there is an additional whole pay period, people get upset when their application doesn’t take on the correct pay period, etc.

So I can certainly see where he was coming from, but since you brought up the technology issue I just don’t see how this change could be feasible.

Beyond that a leap week would throw off financial projections. When you add a whole week in between two regular years, it has a big impact. What do you do for that week? Do you get it off from work, or are salaried workers still paid an annual rate to work for free? Once every four years, a day is not a big deal, but things would get kind of far off their normal time if we had a leap week every 28 years.

As far as the problems with scheduling, computers and technology can be used to automate many of the tasks now. I recommend he take advantage of these tools and use them to make his website automatically take these things into account. When he’s done that it will be easy enough to market and sell the product making him money and saving all this money in unproductive rescheduling.

Personally, I don’t spend any time rescheduling and/or know anyone who does.