Why do we work so damn much?

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-james-suzman.html

by jcarpio • 5 years ago

5 2 5 years ago

If the future will be a static dystopia like Europe, maybe we should work as much as hunter gatherers. I personally would like to live beyond the age of 30 and not die of cavities, poisoning or freezing to death.

carapace• 5 years ago

If you want to see what hunter-gatherers are like the first part of the movie "The Gods Must be Crazy" is worth watching. The !Kung also live in the Kalahari. They are desperately poor in material wealth from the modern POV, yet they don't know it. They are incredibly happy (also from the modern POV.)

It's a great movie, well worth watching.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gods_Must_Be_Crazy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C7%83Kung_people

- - - -

My question is, How do we get from here to there?

Not how to become hunter-gatherers (there's not enough land for 8,000,000,000+ people to live in the old way) but rather how do we organize ourselves to only have to work ~15 hours a week and still enjoy life?

Bucky Fuller thought that what he called "Design Science Revolution" was a viable path:

Fuller advocated the design science revolution as an alternative to politics, seeking to optimize planetary resources for the benefit of 100% of humanity. He coined the term synergetics to explain how design science could create rich returns, such as how "energy income" could be harvested from the environment. His main premise was that nature's existing and omnipotent order must be allowed to guide human designs, if they are to survive and thrive as a species.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_science_revolution

We have the technology now, but the social and political will seems missing to me.

Why do we work so damn much?

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