Comment by pmlnr
7 months ago
Keynes was talking about work in every sense,including house chore. We're well below 15 hours of house chores by now, so that part became true.
7 months ago
Keynes was talking about work in every sense,including house chore. We're well below 15 hours of house chores by now, so that part became true.
Washing machines created a revolution where we could now expend 1/10th of the human labour to wash the same amount of clothes as before. We now have more than 10 times as much clothes to wash.
I don’t know if it’s induced demand, revealed preference or Jevon’s paradox, maybe all 3.
> We now have more than 10 times as much clothes to wash.
OK, but I doubt we're washing 10 times as much clothes, unless are people wearing them for one hour between washes...
> We now have more than 10 times as much clothes to wash.
Citation needed.
I saw some research once that the hours women spend doing housework hasn't changed. I think because human nature, not anything to do with the tech.
That's nonsense. It used to take women a full workday per week just to wash clothes.
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[flagged]
We've got 10 whole hours left over for "actual" work!
(Quotes because I personally have a significantly harder time doing bloody housework...)
Clearly you don’t have children!
Life pro tip: teach your children to do chores.
> Life pro tip: teach your children to do chores.
Before teaching your children to do chores: x hours per week for chores
After teaching your children to do chores: y hours per weeks to have annoying discussions with the child, and X hours per week cautioning the children to do the chores, and ensuring that your children do the chore properly. Here X > x.
Additional time for you: -((X-x)+y), where X>x and additionally y > 0.
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I was thinking it's a function of the social setting. Single bloke 1h/week. Couple 5h/week. With kids continuous. Or some such.
I imagine standards have also shifted. It just wouldn’t have been possible to wash a child’s clothes after one wear before the invention of the washing machine. People also had far less clothing that they could have even needed to wash.
Source? Keynes was a serious economist, not a charlitan futurist.
John Maynard Keynes (1930) - Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren
> For many ages to come the old Adam will be so strong in us that everybody will need to do some work if he is to be contented. We shall do more things for ourselves than is usual with the rich to-day, only too glad to have small duties and tasks and routines. But beyond this, we shall endeavour to spread the bread thin on the butter-to make what work there is still to be done to be as widely shared as possible. Three-hour shifts or a fifteen-hour week may put off the problem for a great while. For three hours a day is quite enough to satisfy the old Adam in most of us!
http://www.econ.yale.edu/smith/econ116a/keynes1.pdf
https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/files/cont...