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by BugsJustFindMe 15 days ago
Name one time in all of history when increased productivity translated to workers working less. I'll wait.
2 comments

We used to have people, including children, working up to 80 hours a week. We now have laws that limit those things. One does not have to create a direct causal relationship. One should more likely expect them to be separate because of the adversarial aspects between labor-capital.

https://www.aeaweb.org/research/workweek-restrictions-great-...

Every single worker that has been laid off due to "increased AI productivity" is working less

As a broad historical trend? Maybe not

But fewer people working, right now? Absolutely

> Every single worker that has been laid off due to "increased AI productivity" is working less

This isn't a useful definition of working less in the thread context and is not the kind of working less that I meant.

If it helps, imagine that I had asked for "when increased productivity translated to workers personally reaping the benefits of the increased productivity by being able to thrive while doing less instead of either being laid off or just being expected to do more".

Yeah. Sorry. This is just a personal gripe of mine. It rubs me the wrong way when people use "work less" as a shorthand for "workers getting a benefit"