> I wonder how much of that leisure time came from being blocked All evidence point to that being very high. e.g. famine was regular and routine, before the ca

> I wonder how much of that leisure time came from being blocked All evidence point to that being very high. e.g. famine was regular and routine, before the capitalism and before the industrial revolution. Humanity basically spent majority of the time before the capitalism and the modern agriculture fearing running out of food. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine#Decline_of_famine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine#Decline_of_famine And, examples like de-collectivization of agriculture in China during their economic reform, or what happened in Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine#Decline_of_famine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine#Decline_of_famine make it very clear "capitalism" played an important role in reducing / eliminating the famine. So, articles like this is really misleading - it implies somehow life was better like this paragraph from the article: > The contrast between capitalist and precapitalist work patterns is most striking in respect to the working year. The medieval calendar was filled with holidays. Official -- that is, church -- holidays included not only long "vacations" at Christmas, Easter, and midsummer but also numerous saints' andrest days. These were spent both in sober churchgoing and in feasting, drinking and merrymaking. The "feasting, drinking and merrymaking" was regularly followed by long periods of malnutrition and massive death.