The 24/7 business model largely declined in the US since COVID. The article discusses the current issue at the surface, but the intention of this post is an argument for a federally endorsed 24/7 model for all businesses to include not only stores and restaurants but office jobs, manufacturing, banks, doctors offices, advanced education etc…. from the lens of strategic improvements to the country’s economy, GDP, and efficiency. I am looking for critical thinkers to pick this apart so I may either abandon or perfect this idea before writing something for publication.

Been a while since I explored this concept but my cousin and I were talking about surge pricing where places like Wendy’s are considering changing the prices of products based on peak demand hours.. services like DoorDash and Uber have surge prices as well as surge wages. This is a dangerous pattern to see when products/services aren’t accessible 24/7.

To address some of the concerns I’ve received so far:

To incentivize businesses while maintaining a free market and ensuring profitability, there would be a temporary 8-year program offering significant reduction of minimum wage for participating companies contingent on a 24/7 business model.

Work-life balance? This isn’t about working more than 40 hours a week, it’s about spreading out labor to more people and reducing unemployment. “Full-time” would not change off of 40 hours so it won’t incentivize burnout. It would enable those with bandwidth and drive to pick up school or a second job without being limited to what’s today considered undesirable jobs or shifts… but that isnt the primary goal. The protections that already exist to prevent companies from over-working employees wouldn’t go away…

It would reduce traffic and traffic accidents.

It would normalize active public during the night decreasing threat of danger.

It would temporarily enable surge pricing and surge waging properly until the market inevitably normalizes.

I don’t see how this could be a partisan issue. It promotes free market capitalism, creates opportunities for work in all fields, addresses some social safety issues, drives prices and cost of living down, and increases efficiency across the board.

It would finally convince Chick-fil-A to be open on Sundays.

Hit me with your counter arguments and critiques so I can further investigate this concept.