In the 50’s and 60’s everyone was talking about automation that was going to flip our way of life on it’s ear. Back then you couldn’t look through a newspaper with out seeing something new from the World’s Fair that was going to some how make our lives easier and better. The idea of automation has helped us to get cell phones, computers, televisions and especially smarter cars but looking back at what we were promised I fell like we are a little behind the “eight ball”; as they say. I don’t meant to take anything away from the technological advances that we have made already but if you look back at some of those press releases and images from those fairs we were promised flying cars, jet packs and robot butlers. We have those toy dogs but that doesn’t count. All jokes aside for all the advancements that we have made since then I feel that we are still working to hard when you consider all of our resources.
In Brian Hayes article “Automation on the Job” he spoke about John Maynards Keynes idea that the economic work week will be reduced to just 15 hours a week. It is true that the our hours have gone down drastically in the past couple decades but all thought the average work week is about 40 hours, with the way the economy is moving right now that idea of 15 hours doesn’t not seem to be in the forcible future. Most people are now trying to work full time hours between two jobs, so we have actually gone from working 60 hours in one factory to now working 30 hours in a factory and 25 hour in a resturant, office or any other place that is offering additional hours so that they can make a living. I don’t believe Keynes is wrong that this idea of a easier life but i do think he was off by just a few decades.