[eru]

That's interesting!

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.

[jama211]

Remote work has enabled hours to be lowered again for many people, it’s just no one wants to say the quiet part out loud about that.

[eru]

Well, it definitely has cut out the commute hours. They are just an unqualified waste.

[jama211]

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.

[eru]

I never did time sheets anywhere, but I pretty much always worked as a programmer (but never in the US).

[jama211]

Yeah I’ve had some bad programmer jobs I guess. Remote is just SO much better either way.

[actionfromafar]

Funny how a 1950s compensation package could pay for a house and family though.

[eru]

1950s houses are no longer legal in most places.

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.