Twentieth-century thinkers widely predicted technology would produce abundant leisure time

Evidence

The belief that modern technological and economic efficiency would produce such a “utempian” society was hardly ever doubted by the advocates of economic and technological progress. One still finds it in, for instance, Ludwig Erhard. As the Swedish economist Staffan B. Linder strikingly remarked, “we had always expected one of the beneficent results of economic affluence [brought about by technological progress—H. R.] to be a tranquil and harmonious manner of life, a life in Arcadia.” The English philosopher Bertrand Russell, in his essay “In Praise of Idleness,” written in 1932, defended the view that this arcadian-utempian society had in principle already been achieved. Only an unreasonable (“Protestant”) work ethic as well as a misallocation of labor prevented its full realization. As late as 1964, the American magazine Life, warned of an imminent massive overflow of free time in modern society that would cause serious psychological problems: “Americans Now Face a Glut of Leisure—The Task Ahead: How to Take Life Easy,” ran the headline of the February 21 issue of that year. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 57

Categorization

• XREF: Pairs with the ‘time scarcity’ literature and with Keynes’s ‘Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren’ — prediction that leisure would grow, which the book’s whole thesis inverts. — connects to: Technology failed to deliver the predicted society of leisure and liberation from work — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1627; Mass production created mass leisure time that changed American life — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 631; Modern advocates long expected technology to deliver abundant free time (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Modern advocates long expected technology to deliver abundant free time #corroborates (0.95)
• A scarcity-free time society was a widely dreamed-of technological promise #corroborates (0.90) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 56
• Postwar planners feared idleness would turn to destructive use of leisure #expands (0.85) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 588