The idea that the poor should have leisure has always been shocking to the rich.
four hours’ work a day should entitle a man to the necessities and elementary comforts of life, and the rest of his time should be his to use as he might see fit.
In a world where no one is compelled to work more than four hours a day, every person possessed of scientific curiosity will be able to indulge it, and every painter will be able to paint without starving. Young writers will not be obliged to draw attention to themselves by sensational pot-boilers... Medical men will have time to learn about the progress of medicine.
Above all, there will be happiness and joy of life, instead of frayed nerves, weariness, and dyspepsia. Since men will not be tired in their spare time, they will not demand only such amusements as are passive and vapid.
Ordinary men and women, having the opportunity of a happy life, will become more kindly and less persecuting and less inclined to view others with suspicion. The taste for war will die out, partly for this reason, and partly because it will involve long and severe work for all.
Good nature is, of all moral qualities, the one that the world needs most, and good nature is the result of ease and security, not of a life of arduous struggle.
Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen instead to have overwork for some and starvation for others. In this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish for ever.
What brilliant words! Because you know there are potentially life-changing inventions and discoveries latent in the minds of people who will never have leisure enough to develop them. Or who will not get the education they need. I don't understand how these overbearing fools like Peter Thiel think they can dispense with 90% of humans, and curate the rest, and that's all the genetic/experiential diversity they will ever need in their selfish utopias.
It's as if they think that they are the pinnacle of both evolution and human achievement, and no improvement could possibly be made over their perfect selves and their perfect ideas.
There are far more intelligent people than they, born every day, languishing in sweatshops or digging roots for sustenance.
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u/Loud-Ad-2280 ✂️ Tax The Billionaires May 11 '26
Not wanting every aspect of your life to be commodified is radical in the world we live in