Worth Reading – Americans Are Overworked. Could AI Change That?
It could allow us to work less. History is not in our favor, though:
The rapid development of digital technology and AI, and the efficiency gains that come with it, is an opportunity to reverse that trend. But will it? There are powerful structural factors operating to keep hours high. We saw this in the Industrial Revolution. Those technological breakthroughs led to longer, not shorter, hours of work. In recent decades, digitization has transformed work in many occupations and industries, but in the U.S. hours haven’t fallen. I’ve argued that’s due to biases in the economy that have operated against hours reductions. Europe has some of these biases, but stronger unions and welfare states and a more equal income distribution have reduced those pressures, so European countries have continued to translate productivity growth into free time. Since 1973, I’ve calculated that the U.S. has taken less than 8 percent of its increased productivity to reduce hours, while western European countries have taken much more—generally three to four times that amount.
https://behavioralscientist.org/americans-are-overworked-could-ai-change-that/
Juliet has written an entire book on the subject, so you should at least read the full article above. As mentioned in the paragraph I quoted above, though, what you’ll find are the things that would allow the American workplace to allow for translating the increased productivity in to fewer hours worked; universal healthcare, overtime pay, loss of unions, and income ineqaulity, are the same things that powerful corporate interests will convince politicians, and voters, are bad for society.
It’s worth considering how many employers would be unable to find someone to take their crappy jobs if there were a viable option for more people to work for themselves and/or organize to force improvements from employers. A significant amount of money is being spent to ensure that option never appears. If we want to prevent history from repeating itself with AI tools that enable us to be more productive, something must change.
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