00:00:14
We work too much.
This is a pretty recent phenomenon,
00:00:19
and so this fact makes us unusual, historically.
It puts us out of step with our ancestors. It
00:00:26
puts us out of step with nature.
For reasons that will become obvious,
00:00:33
Anthropologists in the 20th century became
very interested in the evolution of work,
00:00:39
and so to answer some of their questions they
looked back to Stone Age societies. What they
00:00:45
discovered surprised them. They found that
while there were unique cultural variations
00:00:51
all over the world, virtually all Stone Age
people liked to work an average of 4-6 hours
00:00:56
per day. They also found that most Stone Age
people liked to work in bursts, with one fast
00:01:03
day followed by one slow day, usually something
like 8 hours of work, then 2 hours of work,
00:01:09
then 8, then 2, Fast, slow, fast, slow.
These anthropologists found another thing.
00:01:22
Pre-capitalist and pre-industrial societies
all had their own ways of measuring chunks of
00:01:28
time. Some would measure by how long it took to
accomplish a specific task, or cook a specific
00:01:34
meal, or walk a specific distance. But the
odd thing is that when you compare all of
00:01:40
these little markers that were used by different
cultures, they were all somewhere in the ballpark
00:01:45
of 30 minutes. It seems that in a world without
clocks or phones or sundials, measuring the day
00:01:53
in 30 minute chunks just feels good and natural to
humans. Very few societies ever felt the need to
00:02:01
break the day into smaller chunks than that.
It’s hard to go much deeper than that from
00:02:10
archeological evidence alone, but there are other
pre-capitalist and pre-industrial societies that
00:02:16
we can look back to that can help us.
There are excellent surviving records
00:02:20
from medieval Europe that delve into
this issue, so let’s start there.
00:02:29
For virtually all of human history, most work
was agricultural work. This was also true of
00:02:36
medieval Europe. So when thinking about medieval
workers, we shouldn’t be thinking about cities,
00:02:42
we should be thinking about workers in fields.
For the first hour or so of the medieval workday,
00:02:49
people would just trickle in at their own pace.
The employer was usually expected to provide
00:02:55
some food to the workers, so for this time
people usually had a chat and a bite to eat,
00:03:00
but otherwise did nothing. As you can imagine,
convincing people to get up and start the work
00:03:06
for the day was often quite difficult. Employers
complained about this all the time.
00:03:12
After a couple of hours in the field, there
would be a midmorning break that could range
00:03:17
from 30-60 minutes, where workers
would have another bite to eat.
00:03:22
When the Sun was high in the sky and the day was
starting to get hot, work would stop again for an
00:03:28
extended period of time. Something like 2, maybe
even 3 hours depending on how hot it was that day.
00:03:35
This period would begin with a larger midday meal
that would be recognizable to us as lunch, and was
00:03:41
followed up by, this is not a joke, naptime.
In medieval Europe, siestas weren’t just a
00:03:48
Spanish thing, they were an everywhere thing.
After returning to work refreshed and rejuvenated,
00:03:55
workers would intensify the pace of their work in
an effort to finish everything up for the day. If
00:04:01
they were done by the midafternoon, they could
go home. If they weren’t, they would break for
00:04:06
another 30-60 minutes with more food provided
before going back for one last sprint.
00:04:13
Most of the time, workers didn’t have to stay much
later than this. But if it was harvest season and
00:04:18
people were working late, there would often be
a longer break in the evening with a larger meal
00:04:23
provided by the employer. But this was rare.
Workers might be in the fields for like 8 hours a
00:04:30
day, but when you account for all of the breaks,
they would only be working for 4-6 of those
00:04:36
hours. During the busiest times of year they
might be in the field for like 12 hours a day,
00:04:42
but with the breaks they would only be
working for 7-9 of those hours.
00:04:47
Notice the numbers we’re playing with here. Stone
Age peoples all over the world and agricultural
00:04:54
workers in medieval Europe both liked to work
4-6 hours a day, even though each group had
00:05:01
no knowledge or memory of each other. It seems
that this is just a natural pattern that humans
00:05:08
like. Medieval workers would work longer
during the harvest or during a crisis, but
00:05:14
they didn’t like to, and that’s the point.
Also notice the length of these breaks. Medieval
00:05:22
workers measured the day in 30 minute chunks,
just like their Stone Age ancestors.
00:05:28
What else sticks out in the medieval workday?
Notice how the workers were constantly eating.
00:05:35
That was one of the perks of being a day
labourer. Food was a worker’s biggest expense,
00:05:40
and so part of their compensation was that
their employer would take care of the food
00:05:45
for that day. It would be like if part of your
compensation was that your boss paid your rent.
00:05:50
It relieved a massive financial burden.
One other thing to note is that work was generally
00:05:57
understood to be a thing that happened during the
day, and although there wasn’t an exact science
00:06:03
to this, a workday was broadly understood to be
half of daylight hours. If there was an urgent
00:06:09
need for people to literally work from sunrise to
sunset, there was kind of a gentlemen’s agreement
00:06:15
that this would count as 2 days of labour.
What can we take away from all this? Work used
00:06:22
to be a lot more informal and a lot more casual.
Labour and leisure used to be intermingled. One
00:06:30
was expected to relax or even nap on the job.
Work was a part of a worker’s life. Kicking
00:06:38
back and passing the time wasn’t just something
workers did at home, it was equally something
00:06:43
they did at work. Unless there was some sort
of unusual crisis, workers were not expected
00:06:49
to experience great stress while working.
The week always began at a leisurely pace. Monday
00:07:06
and Tuesday are described as days with a “holiday
spirit.” Employers write of their difficulty in
00:07:12
getting people to even show up. Thursday and
Friday are described as “fast” days.
00:07:19
Mondays and Tuesdays were slow, Thursday and
Friday were fast. An echo of the Stone Age
00:07:25
pattern of working. Fast, slow, fast, slow.
Saturday was pay day, and so it functioned as a
00:07:34
“hurry up and finish everything so that we can
get the hell out of here” day. It seems that
00:07:39
under normal circumstances, Saturday was kind
of a half-day, although during busy seasons
00:07:44
it could easily turn into just another
fast day like Thursday and Friday.
00:07:49
After the week’s work was done and everybody got
paid, workers got a full day off on Sunday.
00:07:55
But by the 16th and 17th centuries, a new
custom invented by workers disrupted this
00:08:02
pattern. They called it Saint Monday.
Saint Monday was a kind of unofficial holiday,
00:08:09
where absenteeism was permitted and even
expected on the first day of the workweek.
00:08:15
People were still flush with cash from last
Saturday, and Monday was a “slow day” anyways,
00:08:21
so it just organically became a thing
that workers just didn’t show up.
00:08:26
Employers learned to tolerate it, and workers
gleefully looked forward to it. Countless labour
00:08:33
actions in Early Modern Europe can be traced
back to some dumbass boss with something to
00:08:39
prove trying to crack down on their beloved
Saint Monday. This was the real origin of
00:08:46
the two day weekend. It didn’t come from the
government, it came from workers, they did
00:08:51
it themselves. And it came centuries before any
legislature got around to making it official.
00:08:58
But leaving aside Saint Monday, it’s striking how
different the mentality of medieval workers was
00:09:04
from the mentality of workers today. Or, let’s
flip that around. It’s striking how different
00:09:10
our mentality is today from that of our ancestors,
going back hundreds, even thousands of years.
00:09:18
Here’s one specific example of that
difference. Whenever medieval workers
00:09:23
could afford to stop working, they did.
Medieval Europe was not a culture in which people
00:09:30
saved a lot of money. This isn’t because they
were primitive or selfish or anything like that,
00:09:35
there just wasn’t that much for poor people to
spend their money on. Food, housing, clothing,
00:09:42
that was pretty much it. If a worker was all set
in those three categories, there honestly wasn’t
00:09:48
that much else available to them. This led to a
phenomenon in medieval Europe where… after all
00:09:55
of a worker’s basic needs were met, the more
they earned, the less they worked. To put it
00:10:02
another way, medieval workers liked to spend most
of their discretionary income on leisure.
00:10:09
This isn’t such a strange phenomenon. If you
survey people today and offer them a choice
00:10:14
between more money or more time off, most people
would take more time off. It’s just that under our
00:10:21
system, people are never offered that choice.
Or when they try to exercise that choice for
00:10:27
themselves, they are either professionally
punished or fired. In medieval Europe,
00:10:33
people could make that choice for
themselves, and whenever possible,
00:10:37
workers worked less. A lot less.
There were three major holiday periods
00:10:50
where workers routinely took a big chunk of
time off. Easter, Midsummer, and Christmas. Or,
00:10:56
for the uninitiated, March or April, late June,
and late December. I would note that of the three,
00:11:03
only the December holiday period made
it into the modern era intact.
00:11:09
Things really slowed down in the winter. Days
were short and the work was also short. Because of
00:11:16
this, a tradition evolved called “winter wages,“
where workers were paid half a day’s wage for half
00:11:23
a day’s work. We’re talking about a 4 hour workday
at the very most. If you add in all of the breaks,
00:11:29
this would be maybe 2-3 hours of actual work.
“Winter wages” were usually done for the months
00:11:36
of December and January, and during this time,
people took as much time off as they could afford.
00:11:42
Workers spent their extra time on indoor labour
that might not generate a profit. Home repairs,
00:11:49
building new furniture, patching up or
making new clothing, these were jobs
00:11:54
best saved for the slow winter months.
When you total up the estimated number of days
00:12:00
worked by medieval farm labourers, things become
quite stark. Researchers have found that Spanish
00:12:08
farm labourers did not work for 42% of days in a
year. In France, the number was more like 49%. The
00:12:17
English usually worked more, but this wasn’t
because they were naturally more industrious,
00:12:22
it’s because they were historically more exploited
by their aristocracy. When there was a labour
00:12:28
shortage in the 14th century, English labourers
immediately used their clout to create more time
00:12:35
off for themselves. For a period of time, English
workers enjoyed 51% of days free from work.
00:12:43
The funny thing about these numbers, 42%, 49%,
51%, is that once again they echo how people
00:12:52
worked in Stone Age societies. Almost every
other day off. Fast, slow, fast, slow. Labour
00:13:05
historian E. P. Thompson describes this work
pattern as a natural human rhythm and a common
00:13:12
preference in people across different regions,
different cultures, and different times.
00:13:18
For a point of comparison, consider a modern
worker working 5 days a week. In a calendar year,
00:13:24
that worker has 28% of days off. Add in the 10
or so public holidays that most countries have,
00:13:31
and that worker now has 31% of days off. Add
in 2 weeks of vacation, and that worker has
00:13:38
34% of days off. Assume instead that they get
6 weeks of vacation, and that worker has 39%
00:13:45
of days off. In order for a modern worker to
even begin to rival the amount of time off
00:13:52
enjoyed by a medieval French farm labourer, that
modern worker would need to be provided with 3.5
00:13:59
months of vacation per year. Plus weekends,
plus public holidays. Medieval workers were
00:14:07
operating on a level so far beyond us, it’s
difficult for us to even dream that big!
00:14:18
Up until the Early Modern era, workers were
paid by the day. The length of a workday
00:14:23
could fluctuate throughout the year,
but even during the busiest periods,
00:14:27
workers might be in the fields for 12 hours at
most. But as I’ve said, if you take into account
00:14:33
all of the breaks and mealtimes and naptimes, that
might translate into 8 hours of actual work. And
00:14:40
that was on the busy end of the spectrum. At
other times, a shortened workday would often
00:14:45
lead to less than 4 hours of actual work.
That all began to change with the proliferation
00:14:54
of mechanical clocks. Cities and towns began
building clock towers in their town squares
00:15:00
in the late 14th and early 15th centuries,
and before too long, churches and yes even
00:15:06
some private businesses were inspired to have
their own mechanical clocks installed.
00:15:14
Arguably the most important
clock ever built was installed
00:15:18
at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 1611.
The Netherlands were at the epicenter of this new
00:15:25
capitalism fad that was sweeping Europe, and their
shiny new stock exchange reflected that.
00:15:32
Local Dutch governments tried to curb the
capitalist fervor taking over their country
00:15:38
by restricting stock trading to certain times of
day – 2 hours in the summer and 30 minutes in the
00:15:44
winter. Wait a second. See that? Even as late as
1611, Dutch stock traders had their own version
00:15:51
of winter wages. It didn’t even necessarily make
sense for their job, it was just in the culture
00:15:56
that that’s what people did in the winter.
Anyways, the Dutch wanted to issue hefty fines
00:16:03
to any traders who violated these
restrictions, so the stock exchange
00:16:07
commissioned a giant state-of-the-art clock.
This idea quickly proliferated to every stock
00:16:13
exchange in Europe. And with this, the
clock escaped the public realm of town
00:16:19
squares and churches and entered the private
realm of business. All of a sudden, capitalists
00:16:25
wanted to prove how much of a capitalist they
were by having their place of business install
00:16:30
a mechanical clock just like their local
stock exchange. Clock mania had begun.
00:16:43
Textile mills were the first businesses utterly
transformed by the clock. Some brain genius had
00:16:50
the idea to connect their mechanical clock to a
bell, which would ring to signal the beginning
00:16:55
and the end of the workday.
This was a profound cultural shift,
00:17:01
and workers really struggled to make sense of
it. Understandably. Under the old system – and
00:17:08
by the old system I mean the way that people had
been working for all of human history – workers
00:17:13
were hired by the day, and measured the day in
30 minute chunks. They began and ended their
00:17:19
workday accordingly, within a broad 30 minute
window. Now, workers were hired by the hour,
00:17:25
and measured the day in 60 second chunks.
This was new, and it was confusing.
00:17:31
Many workers responded to the workday bell
by doing the most logical thing under the
00:17:36
circumstances. They just ignored it. It
had never before mattered at precisely
00:17:41
what minute one began or ended their
work, so why should it matter now?
00:17:46
But the capitalists cared. In fact, they would
develop an unhealthy obsession with the clock.
00:17:53
Before too long, the capitalists were able
to convince city governments to get involved,
00:17:58
who began issuing fines to workers who were late
for the workday bell. Let me say this again. If
00:18:04
a worker who worked for a private business was 1
minute late for work, the local government would
00:18:11
fine them as much as an entire day’s pay. This
kind of thing had never been done before, it had
00:18:18
never been part of the unwritten social contract
between bosses and workers. The capitalists
00:18:23
just unilaterally invented this new rule out of
whole cloth, and they did it by joining hands
00:18:29
with local governments across Europe. Industrial
capitalism and the heavy hand of the government,
00:18:34
friends since the beginning! The owners
of the textile mills wanted to change the
00:18:41
culture of work, and they did, but they did it by
basically beating workers into submission.
00:18:56
As capitalism and later industrialization swept
across Europe, it brought with it an oppressive,
00:19:02
even authoritarian relationship
between workers and owners.
00:19:07
Shortly after the introduction of the
work clock, the capitalist class killed
00:19:12
the customary afternoon nap that had
been a part of the workday for as long
00:19:17
as people could remember. Absolutely tragic.
They also stopped providing food to the workers,
00:19:23
which dumped an extra financial burden
onto the working class. Meal times,
00:19:29
which up until now had been long and
informal and subsidized by the employer,
00:19:35
were shortened and regulated down to the minute.
The entire workday was squeezed and squeezed
00:19:42
until all of the air and all of the culture
and all of the joy was taken out of it.
00:19:48
But soon, even having a maximally
productive workday wasn’t enough.
00:19:54
Workers quickly figured out that they could not
trust the company clock. Many bosses liked to
00:20:00
fiddle with the time so that the work day
started a little bit too early and ended
00:20:05
a little bit too late. One trick that bosses
liked to pull with early company clocks was
00:20:10
to rig them to the production line so that if
there was any sort of technological problem,
00:20:16
as there often was, then the clock would
stop. Later generations of company clocks
00:20:21
had mechanisms built into them that caused
them to periodically pause during the workday,
00:20:26
accumulating minutes, only to suddenly jump
forward to the “real” time during breaks.
00:20:32
It’s funny, because the capitalists were the
ones that invented this idea that the clock
00:20:37
must reign supreme. They were the ones that had
the government fine people if they were 1 minute
00:20:42
late for work. They were the ones who unilaterally
imposed this new social contract on workers. And
00:20:49
then they were the ones to immediately break
that new social contract. Why? No reason,
00:20:56
really. Just for a few extra bucks.
Like I said, workers caught on pretty quickly.
00:21:03
But when workers talked with other workers
about how the company clocks were inaccurate,
00:21:07
it became standard practice within the textile
industry to fire them on the spot.
00:21:13
Fast forward 200 years. When pocket watches became
common, workers did the sensible thing and brought
00:21:20
them to work. Why wouldn’t they? The capitalists
had established long ago that being even 1 minute
00:21:27
late for work was a mortal sin. Surely pocket
watches would enable workers to be supernaturally
00:21:34
punctual. This was exactly what the bosses
wanted, right? But that’s not how it went.
00:21:40
For the first time ever, workers with
pocket watches had physical proof that
00:21:45
their bosses were tampering with the
clocks. This practice was so egregious
00:21:50
and so clearly morally wrong that it became
a political scandal, particularly in Britain,
00:21:55
with genuine calls for regulation and reform.
The capitalists responded to this scandal by…well,
00:22:03
what do you think they did? Imagine, you own a
factory, you find out that your middle managers
00:22:09
are messing with the company clock, word gets
out, there are angry newspaper columns, there
00:22:14
are debates in Parliament, there is the threat
of legislation coming down on your head, it is a
00:22:19
full blown political scandal. What do you do?
If you said “ban pocket watches from factories,
00:22:26
search workers before they enter the building,
and fire anybody who complains about it,” then
00:22:31
congratulations, you’re a fascist! And yeah
that’s exactly what the capitalists did.
00:22:41
By now it should be clear that the mechanical
clock was a tool used by the industrialists
00:22:48
to subjugate and exploit their workers. It
was never about productivity or efficiency,
00:22:54
because they proved over hundreds of years that
they would rather fire a productive worker than
00:22:59
run an accurate company clock. That was where
their priorities were. It was never really
00:23:05
about profits, was it? It was about power.
20th century Canadian socialist George Woodcock,
00:23:17
who wrote at length about what he called the
“Tyranny of the Clock,” wrote the following. “And
00:23:23
because, without some means of exact time keeping,
industrial capitalism could never have developed
00:23:30
and could not continue to exploit their workers,
the clock represents an element of mechanical
00:23:36
tyranny in the lives of modern men more potent
than any other exploiter or any other machine.”
00:23:50
All of the trends that began with the mechanical
clock kicked into overdrive with the widespread
00:23:56
adoption of artificial lighting. This is
what finally killed “winter wages.” Now,
00:24:03
there was no need to take it easy when the
days were short. With artificial lighting,
00:24:07
capitalists started treating every season like it
was harvest season. That’s how factory workers got
00:24:14
stuck working 12, 14, 16 hour shifts, not just
during the busy season, but all year long.
00:24:21
That familiar feeling where you leave work
in the winter and it’s already dark out? That
00:24:26
wasn’t a thing until like 1802. That was a thing
that was invented by the industrial capitalists
00:24:32
in order to maximize productivity.
The industrial capitalists did not stop
00:24:39
with the tyranny of the mechanical clock, and they
did not stop with the invention of the 12, 14, or
00:24:44
even 16 hour workday. In time, they expanded their
reign of terror to target public holidays. Within
00:24:52
a matter of decades, public holidays that had
existed for hundreds of years were systematically
00:24:57
suppressed in favour of more work.
We talked earlier about the late medieval period,
00:25:04
when workers were able to live lives where
they had 42%, 49%, 51% of days off. Only 2
00:25:12
or 3 hundred hundred years later, workers had
to learn to survive with only 15% of days off.
00:25:19
The industrial capitalists would have taken
more if they could, but the Church mounted a
00:25:23
defence of Sunday as a day off. Mostly.
At the end of it all, the lives of workers
00:25:31
had been completely transformed. English workers
in the 19th century were working 80% more than
00:25:38
English workers in the 17th century. The country
had never been richer, but you’d never know it by
00:25:45
looking at the workers. Over the century leading
up to this, the British GDP had grown by 50%,
00:25:52
but over the same period, worker pay was
not just stagnant, but in decline. They were
00:25:57
doing almost double the work for less pay.
And the transformation wasn’t just in the number
00:26:04
of hours worked. Owners and bosses used their
leverage to force their workers to live in a
00:26:11
tiny authoritarian world run by capitalists.
This shift in the culture of work has always been
00:26:25
fascinating to me, and so I tried to look
back to where it first began. When and why
00:26:31
did we shift from the more casual and laid back
work culture that came out of medieval Europe,
00:26:38
to the more totalizing and authoritarian
and inhuman work culture that came
00:26:43
out of the Industrial Revolution?
I think I’ve figured out where things
00:26:48
started to shift, and I think I’ve got it
pinned down to the exact year. 1664.
00:26:56
In 1664, some absolutely psychotic capitalist
named Richard Palmer, cursèd be his name,
00:27:04
paid the church in the town of Wokingham, England
to ring their bell at precisely 4 o’clock every
00:27:10
morning and at precisely 8 o’clock every
evening. He did this because he was still
00:27:15
seeing the cultural evidence of “winter wages,”
where workers woke up later during the slow winter
00:27:22
months and worked half as hard as they normally
did. As a capitalist, this drove Palmer crazy. He
00:27:30
felt that it was deeply important for workers
to be up 4 hours before sunrise every day,
00:27:36
even if they didn’t really have any work to do.
If they didn’t want to wake up on their own,
00:27:41
he would do it for them. So he had the church bell
ring at 4 o’clock every morning, 4 hours before
00:27:46
sunrise. He also felt that it was his job to tell
people when to go to bed, so he had the church
00:27:52
bell ring at 8 o’clock every evening.
Also, shout out to the church for straight
00:27:57
up abandoning their religious mission and
surrendering to this capitalist weirdo. Way
00:28:03
to go guys, I hope the money was worth it!
According to Richard Palmer and this new breed
00:28:09
of 17th century capitalist coming up with him,
“private time” was an outdated concept. This
00:28:16
new generation of capitalists wanted a say in
how workers were spending their hours at home.
00:28:23
They even wanted a say in what time they went to
bed. They had a totalitarian worldview. As far
00:28:29
as they were concerned, all time was company
time. Inspired by the work of Richard Palmer,
00:28:36
this particular form of abuse became a fashionable
trend in England. Psychopaths all across the
00:28:43
country started co-opting churches and victimizing
towns, all in the name of productivity!
00:28:50
20th century Canadian socialist George Woodcock
writes of this new breed of capitalist, “the
00:28:57
new capitalists, in particular, became rabidly
time-conscious. Time, here symbolizing the labour
00:29:05
of workers, was regarded by them almost as if it
were the chief raw material of industry.”
00:29:12
But this newfound obsession with time and
productivity didn’t stop there. When this
00:29:18
new generation of capitalists left their
places of business, they would see their
00:29:23
workers getting off work for the day. And what did
they see them doing? Standing around in groups,
00:29:29
chatting. Relaxing on public benches. Walking
into public houses to grab a meal, or, God
00:29:35
help us, a drink! All of this public recreation
bothered Palmer and his friends immensely.
00:29:44
Palmer’s obsession with the clock coincided almost
exactly with the rise of English newspapers. And
00:29:50
what did this first generation of newspapers like
to discuss? They liked to discuss the “problem” of
00:29:57
the poor, and specifically the “problem” of the
leisure activities of the poor. The capitalists
00:30:04
were very open about this, they said that the
only legitimate leisure activities for the
00:30:09
poor were mental cultivation or religious study.
Basically, studying Latin or studying the Bible,
00:30:17
that’s what poor people should be allowed to do
for fun. Anything other than that, they argued,
00:30:22
was corrosive to the culture. For those keeping
track at home, bribing the church and turning
00:30:29
into a private tool of the capitalist class,
not corrosive to the culture. Relaxing on a
00:30:35
public bench after work, corrosive to the
culture. These people were demons!
00:30:43
That’s what the capitalists wanted.
No life outside of work. No hobbies.
00:30:49
No idleness. No relaxation. No days
off. Nothing to look forward to. No
00:30:55
life. Just work and someone else’s profit.
20th century Canadian socialist George Woodcock
00:31:08
concedes that “mechanical time is valuable as a
means of co-ordination of activities in a highly
00:31:15
developed society, just as the machine is valuable
as a means of reducing unnecessary labour.” But,
00:31:23
he argued, the modern use of the mechanical
clock did not reduce unnecessary labour. It
00:31:30
did the opposite. “Hurried meals, the regular
morning and evening scramble for trains or buses,
00:31:38
the strain of having to work to time schedules,
all contribute to digestive and nervous disorders,
00:31:46
to ruin health and shorten life.”
What to make of all this? We are
00:31:59
richer as a society than ever before, but
somehow we are less free. Workers have lost
00:32:05
so much. Not just our afternoon naps and our
holidays, but our autonomy, our dignity.
00:32:12
In short, we work too much.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
00:32:19
Medieval French peasants took as
much time off as they could afford,
00:32:23
which for them was 49% of the year. It’s time for
us to start moving back in that direction.
00:32:32
We already know how to do this. We have the money,
we have the policies, we have the administrative
00:32:38
capacity. We have everything we need to work
less. The only thing we lack is the ambition.
00:33:12
The messed up thing is I’m
actually very punctual.
