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I recently listened to an episode of the Ezra Klein podcast: "Michael Lewis is asking the right question." Milton Friedman predicted that in the future our pro
by mastax 5y ago
I recently listened to an episode of the Ezra Klein podcast: "Michael Lewis is asking the right question."
Milton Friedman predicted that in the future our productivity would be so high that we'd only work 15 hours a week. Well it's the future now, and he significantly underestimated the productivity we'd have. Yet, the average worker of today works longer hours than before, and higher status people work even more than that.
They talk about consumption and desire, advertising and innovation, whether it's possible or desirable that we learn to be content with less. As an anthropologist Michael Lewis talks a lot about a society that lives very differently, and adds some nuance to the current meme that hunter gatherers had it better than the farmers that followed.
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago> we'd only work 15 hours a week. Well it's the future now, and he significantly underestimated the productivity we'd have Most middle class Americans can easily make this change. You just need to live by the lifestyle of the 1970s. No cable TV, internet or cell phones. No frequent air travel or goods shipped in weekly from overseas, certainly no grocery delivery or Uber or laptops or software. We don’t because we don’t want to. Not because we can’t. (The picture for the lower classes is more constrained. That said, 15 hours a week at a hair above minimum wage is quite liveable in many parts of the country.)
- adflux 5y agoExcept for the fact that you wont be able to buy or rent a house
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- adflux 5y agoPlenty of productivity gained. Its just that its capital doing the work not humans