[swamp40]

Social norms are a pendulum that swings back and forth every 100 years or so. At one end is 6 hours a day or 30 hrs a week, at the other end is work/sleep/repeat. Any less and a society can't function, any more and a person will physically break.

Individually, you get the same shake every free man has had since the beginning. You climb the mountain until you don't feel like climbing anymore. Maybe you're hurt, maybe you're tired, maybe you've found a nice plateau with a wonderful view.

Meanwhile around you, above you and below you - others scamper up the same mountain.

'Twas ever thus.

[semiel]

> Any less and a society can't function

I disagree with this. There is simply less work to be done than there used to be, what with automated factories and powerful computers. We've somehow turned this into an "unemployment crisis", when by rights it ought to be a huge boon that means everyone can work less.

[prodigal_erik]

There are diminishing returns. You could easily have eight people each working a one-hour shift on an assembly line once they all know the task, but writing code that way would be absurd--they'd waste almost all the time explaining how they intend to proceed with what they only just started on.

[semiel]

That's a pretty silly strawman. It would obviously be a better idea to work fewer months out of the year, or weeks out of the month, or days out of the week. How long a single session of work is is probably the least important variable.