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Comment by notaustinpowers | Hacker News Reader

I think you have it backwards, progress should lead us to a world where you don't really need to work. I always think of that John Quincy Adams quote: "I study politics and war so that my son can study mathematics, commerce, and agriculture, so their sons can study poetry, painting, and music."

A younger generation being able to create a life that doesn't require backbreaking, soulless, exploitative work is a good sign. It means that we've done our job to give them an easier future. I don't want my kids to have to work as hard or as much as I have. It's our duty to our descendents and will be their duty to theirs.

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> I think you have it backwards, progress should lead us to a world where you don't really need to work.

If you haven't read, Bertrand Russell in his "In Praise of Idleness" essay talks exactly about that, how technological progress should bring more idle time to workers. It's from the 1920s...

Instead we are under a system where almost all the extra productivity is siphoned away from the ones actually producing something, left with some breadcrumbs while those siphoning the product of labour keep constantly asking for more productivity from their workers for personal gain.

Historically any change to this system has only been achieved through bloodshed, which is very, very unfortunate...

It's not wrong to want that. But...

Are we there yet? Can we all stop working because we've arrived? Well, no.

The problem is that we're still at a place where, if we all stop working, soon we all starve. Sure, we can maintain are current non-starving state with less backbreaking labor than it took a century ago, but there's still a huge amount of work needed to maintain that state.

So keep your goal, and keep working toward it, because we're not there yet. If we keep working on it, the next generation may have less backbreaking labor - not none, and not no work at all, just less.

I'm not saying we're at the point to fully stop working, but we've honestly been at the point that working 40hrs+ a week is no longer what's needed to maintain our current state. But the issue is that large public businesses are unsustainable by maintaining their current state, they must always have growth. We must always work harder. We must always work more efficiently. We must always work more. Because the business must grow.

This would require the idea of success as a business to change from constant growth to sustainability (in an economic sense). If we're able to shift our focus from constant growth to sustainability that will ultimately open up more time for us as a society to spend time away from work. To explore new ventures, to collaborate, to focus on answering questions that aren't profit-motivated. That's how we can slowly adapt to a society of minimally-exploitative work.

Someone has to start somewhere, and I'm hoping this younger generation can break us older generations out of our growth-motivated fog to begin adapting our society to sustainability rather than growth at all costs.

Truly wished more people saw things your way. Why do some older generations feel a resentment at seeing younger kids « having it easier »? That’s the goal of technology.

I think that resentment comes from feeling like you "wasted" your life to make someone else's life better in the future. It's obvious to feel that since we're all selfish to some degree. But ultimately it's self-sacrificial for the betterment of others, which isn't really highlighted or praised in American society outside of military service.

Because its a fallacy. The decadence you enjoy, cost someone else their life energy.

That hasn't changed in 200 years and it won't, any time soon.

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