Before anyone points out that everyone died at 25 or something like that, the low life expectancy had a lot to do with child and infant mortality. If you made it to adulthood, you had a decent chance of making to to 50 or 60, which isn’t a modern life span, but it’s better than most people realize.
And, as you point out, you spent more of your time living rather than just working. If I had almost twice the time with my loved ones while I was young, that might be a decent tradeoff for losing ten or twenty years later one.
My only issue with the article is the reference to America as a first-world country. Crumbling and non-existent transportation infrastructure, a desperate workforce who can’t survive on the wages they’re paid, unaffordable housing, groceries, education and healthcare, and every day adults and children are getting shot by their community members. How can the US still be labeled “first-world”?
Exactly we haven’t (if ever) been a first world country.
Transitioning to second world is more like it.
What is left to transition to make the transformation into the second world complete? A violent political insurrection against the houses of government and interference in the democratic process by a sitting president? Check.
i hear ya… we suck… but i don’t think we’ve gone full Russia just yet… thus i view it more as we are transitioning into a second world country. It’s not happening over night… little by little these oligarchs are chipping away at all liberties and guardrails…
Yea, I see what you’re saying. I don’t even think we suck. I think those oligarchs you mentioned suck and it’s disapoointing that all of the people I grew up with and knew are dead inside for one crapitalist, institutional. hegemonic reason or another.
How can the US still be labeled “first-world”?
We need a new term for countries like Russia, the UK, the transition that the US (and soon to be China) is in/ has been going through since around the 90’s. Its more like a ‘failure to launch’ first world country issue. They had everything they needed to move into a more post-scarcity style economy like much of developed Europe and some SEA countries, but failed to stick the landing, largely as a result of internal politics and right wing radicalism and extremism/ corruption in market capitalism. At the same time there are plenty of countries who have landed on a good mix of social policies that ensure most of every one gets a mostly fair crack at life, while at the same time allowing for enough flexibility and freedom of choice in their economies, so its clearly not an inevitability. I’m also not convinced that these countries can’t make it out to a more reasonable state after a period of trouble.
0-1 world countries?
It is my personal goal to work less and vacation harder. So far, nobody but my family seems to have noticed.
My company pushed for us to do 1,920 billable hours per year to meet our bonus goals. TIL I work significantly more than a medieval peasant.
It’s perverse that we had nearly exponential growth in automation since the industrial revolution, yet people are still working harder than ever. What is the point of having automation if it’s not directed toward reducing the amount of labour people have to do in order to just exist.
