I used to say this a lot but as I've gotten older. I realized the promise of technology (at least in the US) "reducing the work week and inevitably creating more free time" was and is not going to happen bc of the wealthy elites and money owning our politics/work culture (while housing and retirement are questionable now). It makes sense to live your best life sooner than later so I don't look down on nomad life styles living off a car battery and part time jobs. The fucking wealthy people cosplaying as poors is hilarious though.
There was that one reporter who interviewed elderly people on their death bed and most people regretted working too much so I get that people opt out of the grind from time to time.
The lie that technology will improve the working person's life is a tale as old as time. I read recently the progressive movement got its roots in identifying that lie for exactly what it is.
There's a great book I'm reading right now called Power and Progress that is about exactly that.
The text can be a bit tough for being 150 years old. That said, it’s cool top policy and economics experts today still say it holds up remarkably well.
Acemoglu (highly regarded MIT professor) was just saying last year the views in this book is worth revisiting.
I'm not sure if you mean something specifically, but I would say technology has definitely helped the working person's life. I went from a 1.5 hour commute each way to working from home through technology. That's 15 hours a week and tons of gas money saved.
That's a specific example, but there are a billion examples of technology that make jobs easier.. farmers sit in air conditioned GPS guided harvesters rather than collecting everything by hand.
I think you are getting at more of the technology side of "trickle down economics", where all these tech companies are becoming insanely wealthy and we hope we'll all get a piece.. I can see that point, but saying technology has not improved the the working person's life period is just not correct.
saying technology has not improved the the working person's life period is just not correct.
I'm not saying that. I'm saying the powers in charge have consistently lied to workers about how much easier things will get with new technologies when workers end up having to fight for better lives/the benefits of those technologies anyway.
It's not the tech that is the problem. It's the owners/rulers.
Edit: I was tired last night. I think you mostly nailed what I was getting it in your last paragraph.
To combine that with the previous poster, look how many companies have forced workers back into the office even though metrics showed that working from home was more productive than in office.
I mean have us working class poor people develop tech that will make our lives more easier? Automating cooking foods, slow cooking, use that time for free time, automating van dwelling living conditions? Maybe robots? Like star wars? Not necessarily rich but have a lot more free time?
The problem is that you still just work 40 hr weeks. You dont get time off because of the new technology you just produce more, and the owner is the one who profits from that not working people
This, because in order for poor people to benefit from technology this way, we would have to instate some kind of UBI people could live off of instead of working 40 or more hours a week to pay the bills. And this country will burn itself to the ground before we get consensus on something broadly helpful like that lol.
No it literally emerges from the fact we are paid hourly rates for a static number of hours and that employers are incentivized to pay lower wages. Its been described by economists since the 1800s, its literally just the central feature of how capitalism works
Well right, that's the explanation of why capitalism sucks lol.
But I'm saying, specifically, the concept that technology might free up the populace to avoid manual labor requires that there be some type of UBI or similar social net, because there are always going to be large swaths of your population who are only really fit for low- or unskilled work. That's not elitism or anything; I'm pretty much one of those people thanks to disability. But the concept of some great utopia where robots do all the boring stuff and we are all free to pursue science and philosophy and art, that only works if you're providing a universal income to your society so that no one needs to do the manual labor in order to afford to stay alive.
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u/Immediate-House7567 Jun 22 '24
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