

Productivity and the Workweek - pera
http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/misc/worktime/

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Amarok
>shorter hours were assumed to be a natural consequence of increased
productivity

Another possibility is that progress will increase the amount of people that
are unemployed or unneeded to support society, as the others continue to work
the same hours. Not that far-fetched, if you consider our current work-
culture.

If this happens, there would be rising social unrest at first, but I believe
we'd reach a tipping point and a decrease in population would eventually
correct the offset. Of course human reproduction can't be explained away by
simple supply and demand, but the fact is, birth-rates are lowering in
developed nations.

While these may just be suppositions, I think it's interesting to try and
predict how progress will shape our population growth.

~~~
sarciszewski
> a decrease in population would eventually correct the offset

a.k.a. lots of people die

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shurcooL
> An average worker needs to work a mere 11 hours per week to produce as much
> as one working 40 hours per week in 1950.

Suppose there's a meteor heading for earth that will collide in 30 years. If
that's the case, the increases in productivity will be helpful in saving the
race.

That said, IMO it makes sense to channel some percentage of productivity
increases into faster progress, but also some remaining percentage into
reducing standard working hours a little.

------
dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8262381](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8262381)

~~~
pera
wow that's strange: I searched the title (without the year) before posting it
but I got only one result from 2011 and no comments

~~~
greenyoda
If you search for for "Workweek" (which is what appears in the actual title of
the article), it doesn't find the posting from four days ago since the
submitter changed the title to "Work Week".

