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I like the explanation, but I don't like the idea of telling everybody that things where different in the past. When most people were farmers they also worked m
by erikb 11y ago
I like the explanation, but I don't like the idea of telling everybody that things where different in the past. When most people were farmers they also worked more than 12 hours a day, since you need to take care of such a big place. When most people were factory workers people also worked more than 12 hours because the boss thought it would make him more money if you worked more (and with simple, mechanical work that's actually true). The kind of work changed, as well as the reason. But we always worked too much.
And there is one reason he didn't mention: When you don't work so much, you need to figure out what to do with your time. You can't watch movies all day. Nobody can do that for a long time. So you need to think hard about other reasonable things to do. And thinking is painful and scary.
- dood 11y agoThings were different in the past. Most people's lives involved far more leisure than today, for long stretches of the medieval period. source: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_w...
- erikb 11y agoYou don't need to read papers. There are still preindustrial villages in many countries on this planet. And I can tell you from being to some in China that these people work more. Yes they have longer food breaks, but they also have much shorter sleep breaks at least than I can physically manage (5-6 hours, with 30 minutes for shower and going to work). And they don't have leasure breaks like watching two hours of tv before going to bed. The tv is always running in the background but only the elderly and little children sit directly in front of it.
- dood 11y agoThe suggestion to ignore academic studies of the lives of people in medieval Europe because they contradict your experience of villages in 21st century China does not make sense.