> "Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest and eight hours for what you will." - Knights of Labor, 1888.

There's another failure mode of modernity, that makes this quote a sleight of hand: commute. Commute takes another hour or three out of the "rest" and "what you will" sets.

Also, for families, that was eight hours of paid work from one parent, not both...

In 1888, the mothers and any kids old enough to help had essentially full-time jobs with the housework. And mandatory education stopped much younger than today, IIRC from 10 to 14 depending on the country (assuming they had mandatory education at all, which some didn't), so they had more time than you may expect for helping with the household.

There were mechanical washing machines and vaccum cleaners back then, even before electricity, but even that was all harder work than now.

There was a magic period of time after electric-powered washing machines became ubiquitous, but before the market adjusted to women entering the labor force, when you could sustain a home on a single income, and women (and then men, too!) actually had a choice between staying at home to care for house & kids, and having a career. Alas, now the choice is gone, and everyone has to have a job. Sucks for the kids, as now both parents need to go to work, whether they want it or not.

The work was harder but people also didn't wash their shirts after wearing it a single day/time. Machines increased expectations, resulting in workload to remain comparable, since more of it needs doing.

If it wasn’t for wasting an additional 2 hours a day on commute…

It is insane that 8 hours of work per day was considered a reasonable target, back when they didn’t have modern automation. Where did we go wrong? Feels like somewhere we switched from just trying to do the work that needed to be done, to trying figure out a way to generate enough work so that we’ll be needed.

> Feels like somewhere we switched from just trying to do the work that needed to be done, to trying figure out a way to generate enough work so that we’ll be needed.

Modern economy is set on the premise that there's always some way to make money, meaning there's always more work that could be done (regardless of whether that work is actually useful).

I think it's worse than that; people need to be kept busy and on their toes at all times, lest they start thinking.

It's not just thought, but also effort. If you have downtime you have time to organize and advocate for yourself. If you have savings you can withhold labour. The ideal conditions for capitalists are that every worker has the bare minimum to be alive and if they miss work they don't receive that minimum.

"Idle hands are the devil's workshop."

A lot of big cities have youth programs out of fear kids will otherwise join gangs. As an adult if you have a big mortgage payment or rent is high you must hustle. Some of this rat race is optional. Advertisers tell us making yet another purchase will solve your problem(s) or insecurity. Ironically if everyone lived modestly that would trigger a recession.

Teen Vogue had a good article on this back in 2022.[1] Similar to the OP here, but better written.

[1] https://www.teenvogue.com/story/work-culture-america

This is the point of dialectical materialism - before the 8 hour workweek there was an even longer work day with worse conditions. The people born into those circumstances struggled against capitalists (in the sense of people who have capital) to make 8 hour workdays the norm. The next generation was born with 8 hour workdays being standard, and capital pushed back and squeezed in other areas where labour wasn't resisting. Capital has now squeezed so hard that labour is organizing again and realizing they need to fight to retain any of their rights.

Australia just made wage theft a criminal offense.[1] Maximum penalty for employers is 10 years in jail. Became effective January 1, 2025.

This is going to be interesting.

[1] https://www.employmentlawhandbook.com.au/bulletin/new-laws-c...