This point is interesting.

I won't pretend to know if labor statistics are right about this but I would guess and I've heard that worker productivity has increased massively since the 1930s. I think that's pretty hard to argue against. So in a way Keynes was right. But, people aren't paid based on their productivity due to many factors around wage price fixing (min wage) and cultural norms around equality of pay for both hourly and salary people.

Imagine if workers were actually paid for the product they produce vs. the hours they work or their years in the job. People lose their minds when groups get paid more or less on average. We don't really value meritocracy. Not really when weighted against fairness and anti-discrimination. The larger the company the more likely it is to see less focus on merit.

Also it is hard to quantify the value of Jim's labor vs. Johns. There are things like sales where it is much easier and you see merit based pay as the norm.

I wonder if the money hadn't been monkeyed with if we could work 15 hours a week. I kinda doubt it. I think we just want more stuff. The quality of life we have in 2025 vs 1930 is insane. A low income worker has many luxuries the most wealthy would have lacked. But even with this the money being devalued has had a massive impact on how much and how long we have to work.

That's my 2 sats.