"In the 1950s, academics forecast that as a result of new technology, by the year 2000 we could have a twenty-hour workweek. Such a development would be a beautiful example of technology at the service of the human being. ...According to the Bureau of Statistics, the goods and services produced per hour of work in the United States has indeed more than doubled since 1950. ...However, instead of reducing the workweek, the increased efficiencies and productivities have gone into increasing the salaries of workers. ...Workers... rather have used their increased efficiencies and resulting increased disposable income to purchase more material goods. ...Indeed, in a cruel irony, the workweek has actually lengthened. ...More work is required to pay for more consumption, fueled by more production, in an endless, vicious circle."
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Novelists from the United StatesEssayists from the United StatesHumanistsScience authors from the United StatesPhysicists from the United States
Original Language: English
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Sources
A Sense of the Mysterious : Science and the Human Spirit (2005), p. 200
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Lightman
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Alan Lightman
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