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Orwell in 1984 addresses this subject extensively. People working less or not working are a problem for the government. In the book they invented a perpetual war to burn the surplus which would allow us to work less. In real life consumerism seems to to a pretty good job in keeping us busy instead.

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War.. Most of the time I have been alive, the U.S. has almost had a military engagement someplace. What percentage of middle class' taxes are fed to the for-profit machine that in turn feeds the military?

War serves another purpose, too - wealth transfer, and that helps keep the work week at 40 hours.

I think Orwell's point was that excess labor can be funneled to war instead of work but so far that hasn't panned out. If anything, war is also becoming less labor intensive and more capital intensive due to technology.

Your comment would make sense if military spending were an order of magnitude higher. As it is only 5% of GDP, it is hardly enough to have much effect on total hours worked.

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