It’s not just that, but also the nature of work has been changing.
Not so many men doing 15 hour shifts down a mine, or people doing piecework in a dangerous, unhealthy factory.
Lots of youngsters now have a choice of going into much more rewarding and stimulating work as a lot of the crappy and unpleasant jobs are automated out of existence.
BlokeInBrum
Just musing on that theme a bit more.
Perhaps part of the reason that women in Western nations are are doing better in the workplace is due to the shift in the nature of work away from heavy industry etc. into a more service oriented workplace.
The transformation to a service culture where interpersonal relationships and collaborative working are more useful skills to have seen to me to lend a natural advantage to the female of the species. ( and I’m not sure where chicks with dicks fit into this schema!)
Owen Jones is a ‘fine propagandist’ if the audience is dim leftists wanting someone to confirm their prejudices.
bloke in spain
You could write books about what Owen Jones doesn’t know.
But the Encyclopaedia Britannica has been in print since 1768, so hardly worth the bother.
Pat
It’s likely Keynes was predicting a 15 hour week to finance a 1930s lifestyle. No cars, no central heating, no TV, no phone at all, no computer, no record machine, holidays at home, outdoor look as likely as not, a tin bath etc. etc.
Very likely 15 hours a week would be enough to finance a 1930s lifestyle. Though I suspect a tin bath and an outside looking would not today be acceptable to the authorities.
Pat
Look=looking=loo
Doh!
Andrew C
@Hector +1
It’s not like the Left even go so far as to cherry pick facts these days. They just make stuff up then shout you down.
“The current Government is the most right-wing government any country has ever had and deliberately kills babies”
– No it isn’t and no it doesn’t.
“So you’re a Nazi too.”
BraveFart
The problem with Jones is that he wasn’t bullied severely or often enough at school
bloke in spain
The Atlee government was more right wing than Teresa May’s. The Wilsonian Terror was more right wing than May’s. The only thing left of May is Corbyn. And that’s only on odd numbered days.
squawkbox
If it wasn’t for the ever-increasing compliance requirements of the administrative state most of us would only be working three days a week.
Jim
“If it wasn’t for the ever-increasing compliance requirements of the administrative state most of us would only be working three days a week.”
More to the point, whats the average of a person’s income that they pay in taxes of one kind or another, not just income tax/NI? A quick bit of googling suggests the average UK person loses c. 40% of their gross income in taxes of one kind or another (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tax/income-tax/we-pay-an-average-5000-per-year-in-indirect-taxes—thats-on-top/). Which is 2 days work per week. How much tax would the average person have paid in the 1930s?
phil
Squawkbox: are there are proper studies that work out the proportion of GDP our glorious govt really directs? i.e. including red tape / complying with various shite / etc?
Plink
+1 Jim
That was my thought too. When you lob in VAT etc, I probably do work something near 15-hour week at work for myself. The rest of the time I’m working for HMRC.
MyBurningEars
@Pat
“It’s likely Keynes was predicting a 15 hour week to finance a 1930s lifestyle. No cars, no central heating, no TV, no phone at all, no computer, no record machine, holidays at home, outdoor look as likely as not, a tin bath etc. etc. Very likely 15 hours a week would be enough to finance a 1930s lifestyle. ”
Not even sure you need all the “no” as some of those consumer electronic goods are cheap these day. Will exclude TV as that brings the licence fee into play but eg a decent ex-business second-hand laptop can be had for around £100 and last a couple of years, and once you break that down as “a pound per week” then you can probably chuck that in as affordable, though you may need to compromise on something else slightly to fit it in. Plug it in to some cheap speakers and voila, one record machine. Would help if you could connect to the internet though and that is not a pound-a-week proposition at the moment. Similarly a phone itself can be had for very little – but the cost of using one might matter more. Perhaps a few pounds per week on a PAYG deal or cheap contract. You can get a bit of internet access that way.
The “financial independence – retire early” (FIRE) types would view living a recognisably modern albeit frugal lifestyle on 15 hours of wages as a relatively easy challenge I suspect. Even if they’d rather work 40 hours for now so they can cut it to zero sooner…
djc
MBE
My phone cost £5, top-up £10 could well last a year. 10GB mobile broadband at £15 is more than enough for me.
Semi-retired with half a pension, enough to manage a few more years til state pension age, I think I will get by.
MyBurningEars
@djc
Interesting, thanks. I do wonder if (at least for those near urban areas) the rise in cheap mobile data will do away with the need for a separate broadband bill.
It’s not just that, but also the nature of work has been changing.
Not so many men doing 15 hour shifts down a mine, or people doing piecework in a dangerous, unhealthy factory.
Lots of youngsters now have a choice of going into much more rewarding and stimulating work as a lot of the crappy and unpleasant jobs are automated out of existence.
Just musing on that theme a bit more.
Perhaps part of the reason that women in Western nations are are doing better in the workplace is due to the shift in the nature of work away from heavy industry etc. into a more service oriented workplace.
The transformation to a service culture where interpersonal relationships and collaborative working are more useful skills to have seen to me to lend a natural advantage to the female of the species. ( and I’m not sure where chicks with dicks fit into this schema!)
Owen Jones is a ‘fine propagandist’ if the audience is dim leftists wanting someone to confirm their prejudices.
You could write books about what Owen Jones doesn’t know.
But the Encyclopaedia Britannica has been in print since 1768, so hardly worth the bother.
It’s likely Keynes was predicting a 15 hour week to finance a 1930s lifestyle. No cars, no central heating, no TV, no phone at all, no computer, no record machine, holidays at home, outdoor look as likely as not, a tin bath etc. etc.
Very likely 15 hours a week would be enough to finance a 1930s lifestyle. Though I suspect a tin bath and an outside looking would not today be acceptable to the authorities.
Look=looking=loo
Doh!
@Hector +1
It’s not like the Left even go so far as to cherry pick facts these days. They just make stuff up then shout you down.
“The current Government is the most right-wing government any country has ever had and deliberately kills babies”
– No it isn’t and no it doesn’t.
“So you’re a Nazi too.”
The problem with Jones is that he wasn’t bullied severely or often enough at school
The Atlee government was more right wing than Teresa May’s. The Wilsonian Terror was more right wing than May’s. The only thing left of May is Corbyn. And that’s only on odd numbered days.
If it wasn’t for the ever-increasing compliance requirements of the administrative state most of us would only be working three days a week.
“If it wasn’t for the ever-increasing compliance requirements of the administrative state most of us would only be working three days a week.”
More to the point, whats the average of a person’s income that they pay in taxes of one kind or another, not just income tax/NI? A quick bit of googling suggests the average UK person loses c. 40% of their gross income in taxes of one kind or another (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tax/income-tax/we-pay-an-average-5000-per-year-in-indirect-taxes—thats-on-top/). Which is 2 days work per week. How much tax would the average person have paid in the 1930s?
Squawkbox: are there are proper studies that work out the proportion of GDP our glorious govt really directs? i.e. including red tape / complying with various shite / etc?
+1 Jim
That was my thought too. When you lob in VAT etc, I probably do work something near 15-hour week at work for myself. The rest of the time I’m working for HMRC.
@Pat
“It’s likely Keynes was predicting a 15 hour week to finance a 1930s lifestyle. No cars, no central heating, no TV, no phone at all, no computer, no record machine, holidays at home, outdoor look as likely as not, a tin bath etc. etc. Very likely 15 hours a week would be enough to finance a 1930s lifestyle. ”
Not even sure you need all the “no” as some of those consumer electronic goods are cheap these day. Will exclude TV as that brings the licence fee into play but eg a decent ex-business second-hand laptop can be had for around £100 and last a couple of years, and once you break that down as “a pound per week” then you can probably chuck that in as affordable, though you may need to compromise on something else slightly to fit it in. Plug it in to some cheap speakers and voila, one record machine. Would help if you could connect to the internet though and that is not a pound-a-week proposition at the moment. Similarly a phone itself can be had for very little – but the cost of using one might matter more. Perhaps a few pounds per week on a PAYG deal or cheap contract. You can get a bit of internet access that way.
The “financial independence – retire early” (FIRE) types would view living a recognisably modern albeit frugal lifestyle on 15 hours of wages as a relatively easy challenge I suspect. Even if they’d rather work 40 hours for now so they can cut it to zero sooner…
MBE
My phone cost £5, top-up £10 could well last a year. 10GB mobile broadband at £15 is more than enough for me.
Semi-retired with half a pension, enough to manage a few more years til state pension age, I think I will get by.
@djc
Interesting, thanks. I do wonder if (at least for those near urban areas) the rise in cheap mobile data will do away with the need for a separate broadband bill.