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> The 40h a day week and modern-day work contracts come as a direct evolution of medieval servitude, with little modification. Citation needed It really come

> The 40h a day week and modern-day work contracts come as a direct evolution of medieval servitude, with little modification. Citation needed It really come from workers rights to have a life outside the workplace AND a salary even when they could not work (what we call safety). In medieval servitude there was no life outside the workplace, nor safety. Pre-induistrial workers worked less, on the average, because they were surviving They were working when they needed money and not working (AKA doing some other job for the house or the family, like farming or breeding cows and pigs) when they had enough to go on for maybe a week or so. Life was on the edge back then. You had an accident, any kind of accident, you were ruined. There was no safety net, of any kind. > it's a game of face time, who sends most emails past midnight, and who is willing to sell more of their personal life and squeeze other people out of theirs It's not in Europe, for example, where we don't think that socialism is a curse word, we think it is necessary for the progress of society as a whole. I will quote one of my favourite computer scientist ever, Joe Armstrong, creator of Erlang, that unfortunately recently passed away. > Yes - happy days. At the time I was working a 6 hour day due to the enlightened Swedish child care policies. Parents of young children are entitled to work 80% of full time - good for creativity and family life. Result 2 kids and a new programming language. source: https://twitter.com/joeerl/status/1067720315151810560 https://twitter.com/joeerl/status/1067720315151810560

johannes1234321 7y ago
> Pre-induistrial workers worked less, on the average, because they were surviving > They were working when they needed money and not working (AKA doing some other job for the house or the family, like farming or breeding cows and pigs) when they had enough to go on for maybe a week or so. Especially they worked depending on the season. During planting or harvest they were on the fields from dawn till dusk. In winter they took care of the animals and stayed by the fire place inside. Manufacturing work had similar cycles. Only industrialisation brought working cycles independent from season and daylight.
- earth2eca 7y ago
  This is a cohesive response. The definition of work is itself a manifestation of industrialization, post-U.S. revolution. Previously, in the teleologically-oriented universe of the Medieval period and early Enlightenment, there was little if any distinction between work and life. Exceptions were for those who sought to become members of Guilds -- the architects, alchemists, millers, bakers and too herbalist apothecaries whose guild was closesly associated to the early Catholic church and later, loosely, with Luther's heresy.
turk73 7y ago
Yet these days there is no way to work to get ahead for most people. You are always falling behind even as your pay rises because of rampant inflation that is understated by official reports. The entire system is designed to rip people off, then as now.

johannes1234321 7y ago

> Pre-induistrial workers worked less, on the average, because they were surviving > They were working when they needed money and not working (AKA doing some other job for the house or the family, like farming or breeding cows and pigs) when they had enough to go on for maybe a week or so. Especially they worked depending on the season. During planting or harvest they were on the fields from dawn till dusk. In winter they took care of the animals and stayed by the fire place inside. Manufacturing work had similar cycles. Only industrialisation brought working cycles independent from season and daylight.

earth2eca 7y ago
This is a cohesive response. The definition of work is itself a manifestation of industrialization, post-U.S. revolution. Previously, in the teleologically-oriented universe of the Medieval period and early Enlightenment, there was little if any distinction between work and life. Exceptions were for those who sought to become members of Guilds -- the architects, alchemists, millers, bakers and too herbalist apothecaries whose guild was closesly associated to the early Catholic church and later, loosely, with Luther's heresy.

turk73 7y ago

Yet these days there is no way to work to get ahead for most people. You are always falling behind even as your pay rises because of rampant inflation that is understated by official reports. The entire system is designed to rip people off, then as now.