Personally I now get my work done in half the time and spend the rest of my newfound time with my family. It’s gonna be hard to convince me that isn’t a fantastic productivity increase.
Historically (at least for the last century or so) we mostly stopped lowering working hours and instead focused on increased output.
Eg people still work eight hours a day, but get paid vastly more in real terms than in the 1950s. Instead of working only one hour a day (or fewer years or whatever) and taking a 1950s compensation package.
Of course, this is merely a statistical observation. There are plenty of people who eg decide to retire early on a modest nest egg.
I mean, that’s the absolute minimum. I don’t know a single remote worker who doesn’t take breaks at home, but back in the day when I worked in an office if you got up and went for a walk and didn’t put that in your timesheet you were accused of wage theft.
Both because in the US new construction is basically outlawed. But also because 1950s style houses and goods in general are so shoddy, you can no longer legally produce or buy them. In many cases, no one would even take them off your for free, even if they were still legal.)
On a global scale, the times between perhaps 1940s to 1970s had some of the harshest inequality ever. It's been since about the 1980s that inequality has gone down markedly.
Remember how India and China used to be on the verge of famine (or outright in famine). Nowadays obesity is the bigger problem.
Historically (at least for the last century or so) we mostly stopped lowering working hours and instead focused on increased output.
Eg people still work eight hours a day, but get paid vastly more in real terms than in the 1950s. Instead of working only one hour a day (or fewer years or whatever) and taking a 1950s compensation package.
Of course, this is merely a statistical observation. There are plenty of people who eg decide to retire early on a modest nest egg.