> What can we reasonably expect the level of our economic life to be a hundred years hence? ... for the first time since his creation man will be faced with his

> What can we reasonably expect the level of our economic life to be a hundred years hence? ... for the first time since his creation man will be faced with his real, his permanent problem – how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure ... we shall endeavour ... to make what work there is still to be done to be as widely shared as possible. Three-hour shifts or a fifteen-hour week .... - John Maynard Keynes, 1930 [0]. Keynes was an economist whose work had an enormous impact and is still discussed and taught today. He predicted much more leisure and much less work for the future and he was wrong. Extrapolating productivity (hours of work required to create a fixed output) into the future, it makes sense that we'll need to work a lot less to make the same stuff. The missing piece is that we end up deciding we need to make other stuff/services. We fill in our extra time making new things. We're not satisfied with what we used to have. If AI drastically increases productivity, leading to job losses, we will just make other stuff and provide other services and fill our time with that. People will create other jobs to satisfy that demand. For reference: 1700s: 90% of US workers were farmers. early 1900s: 40%, 1970: 4% 1940s: 38% of US workers were in manufacturing/factories. 2020: ~9% As productivity improves, we come up with other things to make or services to provide that are higher complexity or "worth more". The products and services provided by a country are not static. [0] https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/keynes/1930/our-grandchildren.htm https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/keynes/...