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> So at what point do we start seeing the benefits of this "replicator" (in the limit) technology? When we stop consuming more and more. For the most part I co
by flukus 7y ago
> So at what point do we start seeing the benefits of this "replicator" (in the limit) technology?
When we stop consuming more and more. For the most part I could work a single day work week (at 1/5th of my comfy developer salary) and live a lifestyle better than Russell's, that easily covers all basic needs (including modern ones like internet access) with two exceptions.
The first is the sin taxes (cigarettes and alcohol), these are avoidable but the latter is the sort of thing that makes life worthwhile. These are easy enough for society to eliminate if we want to decrease work hours.
The second is housing costs, this is extremely complicated but suffice to say that we aren't at the optimum of what society can achieve, as evidenced by the fact that we've gone backwards in many ways.
If you minimize pointless consumption, live modestly and as a society eliminate those two problems then an 8 hour work week seems achievable.
- rayiner 7y agoThis is pure fantasy. GDP per capita in the U.S. is $60,000 annually, with a 40-hour work week. Cut that to 8 hours, and we're looking at $12,000 per year. That's about the level of Tunisia. How much "pointless consumption" can we eliminate so that we can live what an American would consider a comfortable life within $12,000 per year? Does that include things like heroic medical care for end-of-live issues, nursing care for the elderly, etc?
- flukus 7y agoI was speaking from my perspective with a comfy developer salary which would be roughly double that and yes that should be more than enough for a reasonable standard of living. > Does that include things like heroic medical care for end-of-live issues, nursing care for the elderly, etc? It seems like a good trade to sacrifice a few low quality years of our waning lives to get 4/5ths of our youthful high quality life back.
- harryh 7y agoTotal sin taxes in the US are 60 Billion dollars or so or about 0.3% of our 20 trillion GDP. 0.3% of your 40 hour work week is a little over 7 minutes. You are significantly overstating the importance of these taxes on your budget.
- flukus 7y agoI'm in Australia not the US and sin taxes aren't spread out evenly, especially with cigarettes (not that this is a bad thing). For perspective $50 a week is a doable food budget for an individual, a pack of 40 cigarettes is $50 and a pint of beer can be more than $10. So a weekly budget can look like Food: $50, Cigarettes: $200, Drinking: $100. And that would be a quiet week.