2026-10-31
Keynes Predicted a 15-Hour Workweek a Century Ago: With AI Multiplying Productivity 10x, Where Did Our Time Dividend Go?
[UBI & AI Social Reconstruction · Episode 04] In 1930, John Maynard Keynes accurately calculated that human productivity would grow 8-fold within a century—yet his prediction of a 15-hour workweek never materialized. Now that AI agents multiply software, design, and administrative efficiency by another 10x, why are we still trapped in a 40-hour attendance theater? Drawing on real data from the UK's 61-company trial, Microsoft Japan, and Iceland, we examine how Universal Basic Income (UBI) and shorter workweeks can reclaim our overdue time dividend.
