Shouldn't AI help us push this down to 30h for everyone? Who in their right mind wants to work more? Most of the 40h week is wasted with doing pointless things anyway.

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jjk166 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Productivity per capita has already 5Xed since the 40 hour workweek was implemented. The resources required to comfortably raise a family in a suburban home can be generated with only a few hundred hours of labor per year. Everything they had then is easier to produce now, and the things we've gained since like consumer electronics require barely any human labor at all to produce.

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SvenL 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That’s not how this works. Let’s assume there is a correlation between productivity gain due to AI usage and outcome per working hour. No manager/CEO would say “hey, due to AI my workers get the same work done in 30h for which they needed 40h before - let’s cut their working hours down to 30h with same salary”.

No, that’s not happening. Shareholder value has to increase so keep working 40h and produce more outcome.

	▲	jjk166 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> No manager/CEO would say “hey, due to AI my workers get the same work done in 30h for which they needed 40h before - let’s cut their working hours down to 30h with same salary”. Why not? The moment anyone offers this option, they get their pick of employees who will both churn less and be better rested for their work time, increasing productivity, whereas their greedy competitors get the people with no better options and burn them out. Despite people's despair, the current situation is extremely unstable.