Socialism Is Democracy Extended.

There has been a centuries-long trend of growth in the share of the population having a serious say in the way things run. Significant exceptions are easy to find and there have been terrible reversals, but still it is a big picture trend. I will call the agents behind reallocation of power from smaller to larger social groups “the left,” conceding that this is an oversimplification as well as anachronism, the “left/right” terminology arising only with the French Estates General.

What Happened to the 20 Hour Work Week and the 8 Vacation Weeks?

A half century or so ago futurists and the popular press predicted that the proportion of work in our lives would be decreasing. Machines would do more and more, producing more and more, and so people could do less and less.

Machines are doing more and more, producing more and more. Why aren't people working less and less? What did the futurists get wrong?