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Comment by myaccount80 | Hacker News Reader

Are you considering “having cheaper stuff” actually progress in terms of humanity ?

you've grown so accustomed to modern conveniences that you don't realize that you're kept alive by things that not even a king could've afforded 100 years ago.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/26/the-a...

Yes, when everything becomes cheaper we can pursue greater technology. Having a 5GHz computer would have been impossible some decades ago; now they can be used for scientific research by anyone who has $500.

Ultimately price is just a measurement of how many resources it takes to make something, with the currency added in as the medium of exchange. A product being cheap means it is now easy for us to make; the previous price of the now-cheap product will be taken up by a better product.

Sure, why not? Cheaper stuff, from another angle, means you can work fewer hours to achieve the same lifestyle. And that's pretty good!

But you don't. None of us do. At some point theory has to run into a reality check.

You can if you're a contractor or running your own business.

But it would definitely be nice for businesses in general and employment law to stop being obsessed with 40 hours as a magical number. Working 4 8-hour days, or 5 6-hour days, or 4 6-hour days should be just be an option by default.

(And wages have to stop stagnating relative to prices so that the premise of "cheaper stuff" actually happens in the first place.)

Yes, the march of human progress can be measured in the decrease in prices of all of the things we produce.

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