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Please also read accounts of people who wrote about the ordinary people's living and working conditions at the same time, such as George Orwell's Wigam Pier, ma
by dragandj 11y ago
Please also read accounts of people who wrote about the ordinary people's living and working conditions at the same time, such as George Orwell's Wigam Pier, many essays or Down and out in Paris and London, and you'd be amazed at how far better we live now.
Compared to that time (1920s, 1930s), people today (in the developed world) really DO NOT have to work so hard and the surplus is huge.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago> Compared to that time (1920s, 1930s), people today (in the developed world) really DO NOT have to work so hard and the surplus is huge. We could be working even less though. https://c4ad.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/epi-disconnect-between-productivity-and-wages-v1.png https://c4ad.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/epi-disconnect-betw... http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/ http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/
- dragandj 11y agoSure, but are you sure that we wouldn't get worse results and thus decreased living conditions? On the other hand, who is 'we'? Some people already work even less ;) Just to make clear, I do not argue that the situation is good as it is, I just replied to the post that complained that Russell was naive and off the mark. In my opinion, as far as predicting the future can go, Russell was fantastically right in many things. Of course not everything is right and we should work even less.
- chillwaves 11y agoWe should be living better considering how much immeasurable wealth society as a whole have developed. The problem is not that we are not making zero progress as a society, the problem is how much we are being held back by the greediest at the top. For those, efficiency is a matter of maintaining control, not moving us forward.