Re:Pre-industrial workers had a shorter workweek than today'...
by asdff on Sunday October 31, 2021 @02:34PM
(#29059175)
The nature of the work is different, but the amount of time spent doing work is still quite substantial even if we are mostly just operating machines. Plus other stuff has stayed the same, It hasn't gotten any faster to cook a piece of meat since that's limited by the laws of physics.
But do you or your partner have to spend ~1200-2000 working hours/year spinning clothes for you and your household?
This was absolutely the norm in pre-industrial times. You couldn't just go down to the thrift store and buy a pair of jeans for $8.
When you clean, fix, wash and butcher, you have a dishwasher. You have a washing machine. You have a dryer. You have running water. You don't need to go down to the well, or to the river, to bring water up in buckets. You have electric heating - and you don't have to spend hundreds of hours a year chopping, seasoning, and splitting firewood, and then hauling it to your home. (And even if you do, you have far better tools to do it than were available back in the day.)