Re:Why are we still working this hard?
by curiousotter on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @03:53PM
(#50458522)
There are a few misconceptions that come up in this discussion, which are important to understand:
a) people don't just work to make X dollars per year. They work to have a similar or higher standard of living than their peers (the famous "keeping up with the Joneses"). Sure there are dirt cheap housing in the middle of the country, but everyone wants to live in NYC. This is not about getting to a fixed point, it's a competition. So no matter how much more productive we get, we'll work as much as we reasonably can, which for most people is 40-60 hours/week
b) the issue with doing redistribution with taxes, is that the government doesn't just give the money back to the people. They waste it by proclaiming they can put it to good use, via custom benefits, non profits, etc. This is (usually) a huge waste of resources. So taking in an additional 30% of GDP as taxes won't make everyone 30% richest; it'll go in the pockets of the well connected or those willing to commit fraud and grift. And the politicians in governmetn have strong incentive to continue doing it this way because they get support and votes in return (e.g. through media corruption or special interest groups that vote as a bloc)
c) we have taken some of the productivity back - we have life saving drugs, clean water, cheap energy, all the entertainment in the world in our fingertips - things that 100 years back were reserved for royals and kings. But because of point (a) of course, nobody's happy having "just" that
d) even if the macines become super productive, it doesn't mean the price of everything is going to zero. There's still only so many apartments to rent or own in manhattan, and the price of human service will skyrocket (as it has done over the past few decades - compare the price of a TV to the minimum hourly wage for example). So it's a misconception that the value of money will go to zero, as Elon recently said
a) people don't just work to make X dollars per year. They work to have a similar or higher standard of living than their peers (the famous "keeping up with the Joneses"). Sure there are dirt cheap housing in the middle of the country, but everyone wants to live in NYC. This is not about getting to a fixed point, it's a competition. So no matter how much more productive we get, we'll work as much as we reasonably can, which for most people is 40-60 hours/week
b) the issue with doing redistribution with taxes, is that the government doesn't just give the money back to the people. They waste it by proclaiming they can put it to good use, via custom benefits, non profits, etc. This is (usually) a huge waste of resources. So taking in an additional 30% of GDP as taxes won't make everyone 30% richest; it'll go in the pockets of the well connected or those willing to commit fraud and grift. And the politicians in governmetn have strong incentive to continue doing it this way because they get support and votes in return (e.g. through media corruption or special interest groups that vote as a bloc)
c) we have taken some of the productivity back - we have life saving drugs, clean water, cheap energy, all the entertainment in the world in our fingertips - things that 100 years back were reserved for royals and kings. But because of point (a) of course, nobody's happy having "just" that
d) even if the macines become super productive, it doesn't mean the price of everything is going to zero. There's still only so many apartments to rent or own in manhattan, and the price of human service will skyrocket (as it has done over the past few decades - compare the price of a TV to the minimum hourly wage for example). So it's a misconception that the value of money will go to zero, as Elon recently said