> When was the last time that productivity gains translated directly into a quality of life increase for the workers?
It's easy to be cynical, but productivity gains in agriculture are the main reason why we have enough to eat. Less obviously, they led to a huge improvement in quality of life for workers across all levels of society. The effect played out over hundreds of years.
US farms produce more than enough food for the entire population with less than 2% of the work force. [0] Surpluses of capital as well as increases in available labor from improvements in agricultural productivity were among the many factors that enabled the industrial revolution. [1] The root causes of the English industrial revolution were many, but it's hard to escape the importance of agricultural productivity in the mix.
It's easy to be cynical, but productivity gains in agriculture are the main reason why we have enough to eat. Less obviously, they led to a huge improvement in quality of life for workers across all levels of society. The effect played out over hundreds of years.
US farms produce more than enough food for the entire population with less than 2% of the work force. [0] Surpluses of capital as well as increases in available labor from improvements in agricultural productivity were among the many factors that enabled the industrial revolution. [1] The root causes of the English industrial revolution were many, but it's hard to escape the importance of agricultural productivity in the mix.
[0] https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/chart-d...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution#Causes