> In reality, there's a race in terms of productivity: "now they can do 2x the work they did before!"
I think the reality is more depressing. It’s not companies deciding this, it’s each other. “Now I can do 2x the work I did before.”
As a system there’s a feedback loop involved. You only need very few people to decide to undercut each other, but for each person who does, that’s more pressure for the next person to keep up, causing even more pressure on the next people, etc.
This is why the 40 hour work week had to come from the top. I doubt we’ll see real leisure time improvements until we see overtime pay starting at 32hr/week or something else top down like that.
I think the reality is more depressing. It’s not companies deciding this, it’s each other. “Now I can do 2x the work I did before.”
As a system there’s a feedback loop involved. You only need very few people to decide to undercut each other, but for each person who does, that’s more pressure for the next person to keep up, causing even more pressure on the next people, etc.
This is why the 40 hour work week had to come from the top. I doubt we’ll see real leisure time improvements until we see overtime pay starting at 32hr/week or something else top down like that.