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Did this 8 to 10 hour per day thing get sprung on people and forced upon them from nowhere? No. Of course not. It's something that achieved a "natural" ba

Did this 8 to 10 hour per day thing get sprung on people and forced upon them from nowhere? No. Of course not. It's something that achieved a "natural" balance over decades (centuries?). Nonsense. In the United States, the eight-hour day for everyone came from the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1937. Australia got it state by state starting in 1916 (Victoria 8 Hours Act) and nationally in 1948. The Mexican constitution of 1917 also prescribed an 8 hour day. None of these are "centuries" old. Obviously, individuals and unions demanded shorter working hours before these acts were passed. However, if you look at the spread of these demands, it all happened pretty fast--and at a time when communication and coordination were significantly more difficult than at present.

rebootthesystem 10y ago
Right, but the reason it was set to 8 and not 4, 7 or 6 or 10 is that this is a "natural" (using the word in quotes because it isn't quite so) balancing point that came to be understood over centuries, way before these laws were passed. The numbers were not pulled out of thin air. I don't know the answer to this. It'd be interesting to understand how long the work day was in ancient times. Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc. Even with slavery, there had to be a forced optimization of labor hours simply due to the fact that people would get sick or even die if subjected to unreasonable schedules. The world somehow seems to have achieved labor balance at eight hours per day. It's interesting that this seems to be the case in most nations and cultures on the planet. That's what I mean by it being the "natural" work day. To force something different at a national level (less or more hours) would put that particular nation at odds with other nations. It would also have detrimental effects at all levels, from the individual to the nation itself. I insist these changes are possible but not through forced legislative approaches. This is where I think, in the long term, robotics and AI will have a positive effect on society. If less people can produce more in less time and we can figure out how to cope with the societal changes this will spur, we could be on a path where people will be able to exist with much less (in financial terms) yet have good lives and achieve balance. I can almost see an evolutionary path towards what today looks like utopia. I just don't know how to get there. Being in robotics myself I always worry about what it means to make machines that can displace humans. Not sure where the answers on that might lie.

rebootthesystem 10y ago

Right, but the reason it was set to 8 and not 4, 7 or 6 or 10 is that this is a "natural" (using the word in quotes because it isn't quite so) balancing point that came to be understood over centuries, way before these laws were passed. The numbers were not pulled out of thin air. I don't know the answer to this. It'd be interesting to understand how long the work day was in ancient times. Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc. Even with slavery, there had to be a forced optimization of labor hours simply due to the fact that people would get sick or even die if subjected to unreasonable schedules. The world somehow seems to have achieved labor balance at eight hours per day. It's interesting that this seems to be the case in most nations and cultures on the planet. That's what I mean by it being the "natural" work day. To force something different at a national level (less or more hours) would put that particular nation at odds with other nations. It would also have detrimental effects at all levels, from the individual to the nation itself. I insist these changes are possible but not through forced legislative approaches. This is where I think, in the long term, robotics and AI will have a positive effect on society. If less people can produce more in less time and we can figure out how to cope with the societal changes this will spur, we could be on a path where people will be able to exist with much less (in financial terms) yet have good lives and achieve balance. I can almost see an evolutionary path towards what today looks like utopia. I just don't know how to get there. Being in robotics myself I always worry about what it means to make machines that can displace humans. Not sure where the answers on that might lie.