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Comment by baggy_trough | Hacker News Reader

"hunter-gatherer societies like the Ju/’hoansi spent only about 15 hours a week meeting their material needs despite being deeply impoverished by modern standards."

I don't understand the "despite" in the above sentence. The more they would work to meet their material needs, the less impoverished they would become, no?

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"despite them having time resources to raise their standard of living, they chose not to spend time on more work."

Clearly they do not feel impoverished, and, dare I say it, do not feel that "modern standards" are worth working for.

While some standards are obviously good, like medicine, water, sanitation - some others like 2 cars, or a dishwasher may be less inspirational.

A dishwasher is a one time capital investment that saves water (a cost), time (that can be spent on self-directed pursuits), and human cost from under-sanitized dishes (even something like nausea from cross-contaminated food poisoning reduces a human's productitivity in their self directed pursuits).

I think it's suggesting that they don't work more hours despite having an easy/obvious incentive (to our eyes) to improve their lot. There are a lot of mid/upper-class people in a typical, modern, urban society who have shelter, food, safety and more but pour in 70 hours a week, maybe paying off a big house or trying to get a fancier car or more expensive clothes.

I guess the point is that they're content with what they have, even if it's just the bare minimum.

Most people prefer working fulltime and sleeping in a home over not working and sleeping in a tent like the hunter gatherers did. The hunter gatherers just didn't have an option to work harder and get a stable home, since the nature of hunter gathering requires you to move around.

Then as people settled down and became farmers they also gained the opportunity to improve their lives by working hard, and at that point they started working way more hours. It makes sense.

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