Majority of jobs are either:
- Sedentary
- Physically dangerous
- Heavy on stress and emotional labour
Or a combination.
8-9 hours a day of that, sometimes more? Yeah, no, that can do a lot of damage.
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Ah, the concerns of the wealthiest population ever to have lived. A sign of the times, and no bad thing. But perspective helps.
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I didn't say the recent past (or pre-agriculture) was an improvement, particularly not in material wealth. It's not a relativistic statement.
Turning it into a relativistic statement doesn't grant perspective. It distorts the point.
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(I'm not saying you don't have a point. I'm saying the point is a bit of a red herring in this context.)
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The red herring is the idea that anyone except the most privileged can do anything about the brutal reality of needing to feed their families through long hours and hard work - which comes at a price, as does everything of value.
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My profession is highly technical. Wages are down massively in the past 5 years, combination of cronyism and automation.
Now I work in automation. The work I'm doing won't be as quickly replaced (but it will). My old job will be as profitable as working in a cash register, soon.
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None of which is to say that anyone can just pick up and leave work. I have a family to feed, too. There's no need for the condescension.
But this world model you're presenting is dying. As it does, it will take with it a lot of paid work. You can still work for free, but...
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Are you saying that people in future will be paid for not working?
I hope you’re right. I doubt you are.
Western society has been wealthy enough to eradicate poverty for several generations, but hasn’t. I don’t see grounds for hope that that is going to change.
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Saying the opposite, actually. You'll be not paid for working. Maybe, at best, you'll be fed and clothed.
If, on the other hand, the masses prove too dangerous or too useful in some *other* way, UBI seems likely. A state or corporate UBI would be a monstrosity, though.
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That said, I don't think anyone knows. Economics is a cesspool of charlatans and warring points of view, and digital currencies are too new to understand.
One thing is for certain, though: the value of most work is decreasing, and right now it's only going to get worse.
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All of which is why I started with the much softer premise:
Work as is, if obviously an improvement on early agriculture and industrialism, sucks and is bad for you.
This is before you add considerations like paying the bills or such, of course, but then that wasn't my point.
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If anything, subsistence on 100% work is *already* a "privilege", one few can afford.
I make do with about 60%, but I am smart, lucky, exposed to outsize risk from a weak contract AND work online, living cheap.
If my boss stops liking me, I am still pretty screwed.
Fin.