Technology and automation has led to much greater efficiencies and output for every human in the workforce over the last 50 years. How come this hasn’t led globally to less working hours or a shorter work week for the average worker?

Question

EDIT: Replace ‘every human in the workforce’ with ‘most people’. I agree efficiency has not been gained equally across all professions.

In: Economics

Answer 1

People will say it’s because of greed or politics, but really what people don’t understand is that technology *isn’t creating less work, it’s creating more*. Throughout history whenever there are major technological advancements, it creates the need for more markets and industries that didn’t exist before. This in turn creates new jobs that people will need to work. A good book that covers this a little bit is Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. He describes how sock makers in 1700’s England went on strike over machinery that “replaced” the jobs of some of the workers. But within 50 years, there were exponentially more sock makers, and thousands of other jobs that had to exist to enable the new machinery and methods of sock making. Interesting stuff