Jack Ma: In 30 Years People Will Work Four Hours a Day and Maybe Four Days a Week (cnbc.com)

There could be benefits from artificial intelligence, self-made billionaire, Alibaba chairman Jack Ma said, as people are freed to work less and travel more. From a report: "I think in the next 30 years, people only work four hours a day and maybe four days a week," Ma said. "My grandfather worked 16 hours a day in the farmland and [thought he was] very busy. We work eight hours, five days a week and think we are very busy." He added that if people today are able to visit 30 places, in three decades it will be 300 places. Still, Ma said the rich and poor -- the workers and the bosses -- will be increasingly defined by data and automation unless governments show more willingness to make "hard choices." "The first technology revolution caused World War I," he said, "The second technology revolution caused World War II. This is the third technology revolution."

Comments

It's called Shift Work

[Anonymous Coward]

No one will have full time employment, everybody will be working multiple jobs just to rent some shitty hole in the wall and buy trash food

Meanwhile Quintillionaires will be jerking themselves off in space

FUTURE!

Not true (for the US)

[houghi]

In Europe we are working on it (35 workweek. 30 days holiday. Sick days are not holidays, maternity and paternity leave, ...)

In the US, if the current situation is any indication there will be one poor chap working 16 hours a day for 6 days a week for a minimum wage and all the rest will be called unemployed slackers and get nothing.

Re:Not true (for the US)

[Bozzio]

Hear hear.

I've been alternating between working for 1-2 years and then taking a sabbatical for 1-2 years for a while now and it's great. I can afford this because I don't have any debt. I don't have any debt because I don't own a house, a car, or any other luxuries. I live very frugally. I've chosen this lifestyle because typically after about 18 months in the workplace my mental health suffers.

I'm not suggesting the entire world adopts this approach, I'm just saying this it what works for me.

Now, I'm a software engineer so when I work it pays well. This allows me to have a 50/50 work/sabbatical balance. But, I often wonder if other careers could swing this as well but with a different ratio. I believe the key is not living beyond your means.

I'm fortunate in that, where I live, I can get by without a car or a house. However, where I grew up (North America) this just isn't possible. In order to be part of the workforce you often need a very expensive minimum set of equipment. You can't get to work without a car. There is no affordable lodging near work.

So, in addition to changing the length of the typical workweek, I think we should also be changing how people access work.

This isn't the 50s anymore. Houses and cars aren't cheap anymore.

Re:Not true (for the US)

[Anonymous Coward]

Shorter life expectancy, lower standard of living, lower levels of satisfaction with life, higher levels of obesity, lower levels of literacy, that the kind of 'better off' you're talking about?

Let's deal with the real world, not the one you'd like to be real, shall we?

Re:This has been predicted forever

[bluefoxlucid]

Do you know when the 40-hour work week began? Railroad workers finally got it in 1916; it became a general part of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1937. Most people were working 10-16 hour days.

Re:BS

[Oswald McWeany]

Fortunately, in 40 years I'll be almost 80, and only 20 years away from being able to finally retire.

Re:I thought robots were supposed to do everything

[torkus]

You read too many jilted newspapers and fail to understand market dynamics.

Oil is cheap now because of an oversupply.

Discover of new oil sources isn't driving the over-supply. Instead, it's new technology (and the previously much higher value of oil) driving the exploitation of existing, known fields that were previously not economical to tap.

It's also removal of some restrictions on new wells, fracking, and other techniques.

Combine that with a newfound US refusal to depend so heavily on oil from OPEC has led to a price war in essence. OPEC upped their production to force over-supply and a reduction in prices which was intended to drive the North American producers (which typically have significantly higher production expenses per barrel) out of business. Unfortunately for them, many of those producers already invested the large capital and instead dug in their heels and worked to be more cost efficient. They generally succeeded. Now even as OPEC reduces output to try and bring the prices back up, they're on the losing side of the game after having been used to virtually limitless income in the prior years.

Even with that in mind, the move to renewables is well underway. If people would get un-stupid, we'd combine that with nuclear and call it a day for powering the grid and work to replace our ICE vehicles more rapidly with EVs.