| ▲ | alexpotato 2 hours ago | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
My dad was a stock broker in the late 1970s and remembers when most of trading was 100% manual and firms actually had "runners" who would take stock certificates back and forth between trading firms. He has this great quote about when computers came out: "We were told 'computers will save you so much time on work tasks that you won't even know what to do with your free time'. I spent the next 30 years working the same number of hours. " | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | throw0101a 21 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
> He has this great quote about when computers came out: "We were told 'computers will save you so much time on work tasks that you won't even know what to do with your free time'. I spent the next 30 years working the same number of hours. " From about one hundred years ago: > Now it is true that the needs of human beings may seem to be insatiable. But they fall into two classes --those needs which are absolute in the sense that we feel them whatever the situation of our fellow human beings may be, and those which are relative in the sense that we feel them only if their satisfaction lifts us above, makes us feel superior to, our fellows. Needs of the second class, those which satisfy the desire for superiority, may indeed be insatiable; for the higher the general level, the higher still are they. But this is not so true of the absolute needs-a point may soon be reached, much sooner perhaps than we are all of us aware of, when these needs are satisfied in the sense that we prefer to devote our further energies to non-economic purposes. […] > For many ages to come the old Adam will be so strong in us that everybody will need to do some work if he is to be contented. We shall do more things for ourselves than is usual with the rich to-day, only too glad to have small duties and tasks and routines. But beyond this, we shall endeavour to spread the bread thin on the butter-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 may put off the problem for a great while. For three hours a day is quite enough to satisfy the old Adam in most of us! * John Maynard Keynes, "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren" (1930) * http://www.econ.yale.edu/smith/econ116a/keynes1.pdf An essay putting forward / hypothesizing four reasons on why the above did not happen (We haven't spread the wealth around enough; People actually love working; There's no limit to human desires; Leisure is expensive): * https://www.vox.com/2014/11/20/7254877/keynes-work-leisure | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | xiaoyu2006 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Human had all the industrialization and stuff, yet we work 5 days / week now. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | paulddraper 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Because human nature it to want more, more than wanting idleness. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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