Here’s the thing. We could have that right now, today, we’re there, they’re right. Computers and just useful software (fuck AI) alone have increased productivity so much that one guy with fancy Excel can do the work of what used to take 98 people (7 banks x 14 person abacus teams). And that’s just one regional bank. Before email, corporations had internal mailing departments, now there’s dirt cheap and super convenient email. There are untold numbers of shell scripts out there quietly replacing whole ass departments of people. Soft automation alone, no robots needed, has increased human productivity to an absolutely bonkers degree since these statements were written. Thanks to the Friedman doctrine and Reagan and Thatcher and their ilk, all the benefits of that productivity got turned into a benefits for the asset holding class, while the middle and lower classes got lectures on the morality of hard work.
damn this sounds like a lovely world where republicans ceased to exist since 1967
The timeline where Reagan didn’t fucking gut the unions.
Interesting predictions from the 60s.
It turns out that in the early 70s, “we” decided to give everything to corporations and those already wealthy instead. Productivity did indeed continue to skyrocket, but wages have stagnated since then. For 50+ years we’ve been getting robbed.
The late 60’s is when George Welch became the head of the GE plastics division, in 71’ he also became the head of the GE metallurgy division. Throughout the 60 he developed and popularized “rank and yank”, basically firing 10% of your lowest performing employees on a regular basis.
The idea of corporate having loyalty to their consumers and workers died at the hands of George Welch. The obsession with quarterly profits, paper profits, and maximizing short term gains are all basically the invention of this one little man.
He was made a titan of industry for parting out one of the most iconic and profitable businesses in US history. Pretty much every CEO has walked in his image since, despite the fact that he ran He into the ground.
Is the takeaway from that site unpegging the USD from gold caused the current wage crisis?
Pretty much its about the federal reserve, unpegging from gold just let them go hog wild. Inflation is the best tool they have because it is taxation that the poor and middle class dont tend to notice.
This is so uniquely depressing. They were accurate on my annual wage in 2024 yet they assumed I’d be working less than 40 hours 😭
I think you misread that, because $40,000 in 1966 is roughly $385,000 in today’s dollars.
Edit: conversely, $40,000 in today’s dollars would be $4,176.25 in 1966.
Pretty sure that’s the joke
That was the joke. I make $40k today.
I got that wage, but not accounting for inflation…
With the 1966 labour share of income you probably would be working way less (or making way more)
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“HAHAHA…no”
– Capitalists
If only this picture had the next paragraph…
“There are some who gloomily expect a society run by a small elected elite, presiding over a mindless multitude kept happy by drugs and circuses, much as in Huxley’s Brave New World. But most futurists believe that work will still be the only way to gain responsibility and power.”
I would encourage almost any American to get a remote job (or three) and move abroad to a country that has a visa for remote workers and good healthcare. It might be the only way some workers will be able to save and retire some day.
Well, in Germany we have legal Holdiays at least…
And on average the 39,5 hours work week and 25-30 vacation days per year. Also unlimited payed sick days.
Not unlimited. 6 months would raise eyebrows.
Sure, theoretically normal sickdays are capped to six weeks, but you do not have to collect your sick days in a sick day account like the Americans. You get a doctor’s notice and then have an official sickday. After the six weeks you can still get Krankengeld which is paid by the statutory health insurance.
:(
Not incorrect, Jeff Bezos is working fewer than 4 days a week and fewer than 8 hours on a workday.
The naivete is hilarious.
