Are you sure? From the perspective of the worker / peasant, we’re working way more hours and days currently than ever in history.
All the gains of automation have been sacrificed on the altar of increased ‘productivity’ so a very few can have numbers go up in an account.
NaibofTabr raises the point that war is not as constant, but it was seasonal then, now it is year long, and for the last 20+ years the world has never been at peace, with ever more destructive weapons.
You can point to the rise of science and medicine and claim capitalism did that, but you can just as easily claim that was the work of well minded individuals, then claimed by capitalists.
Standard of living has increased, but is that due to capitalism or the rise of population and the wealth of ideas that comes with it?
That article is interesting, but I wish it covered more than the UK and the US and a particular set of working conditions. In the US for example, slaves were forced to work from dawn until dusk, giving them 14-hour workdays in the Summer. I have no idea what workdays looked like in China, India, or outside of the period of history prior to the industrial revolution, but I would suspect the amount of exploitation varied widely even within the narrow times and places we have historical access to.
Are you sure? From the perspective of the worker / peasant, we’re working way more hours and days currently than ever in history.
All the gains of automation have been sacrificed on the altar of increased ‘productivity’ so a very few can have numbers go up in an account.
NaibofTabr raises the point that war is not as constant, but it was seasonal then, now it is year long, and for the last 20+ years the world has never been at peace, with ever more destructive weapons.
You can point to the rise of science and medicine and claim capitalism did that, but you can just as easily claim that was the work of well minded individuals, then claimed by capitalists.
Standard of living has increased, but is that due to capitalism or the rise of population and the wealth of ideas that comes with it?
It is far from clear.
That article is interesting, but I wish it covered more than the UK and the US and a particular set of working conditions. In the US for example, slaves were forced to work from dawn until dusk, giving them 14-hour workdays in the Summer. I have no idea what workdays looked like in China, India, or outside of the period of history prior to the industrial revolution, but I would suspect the amount of exploitation varied widely even within the narrow times and places we have historical access to.