Elizabeth Kolbert summarizes the new book [Overwhelmed](http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Overwhelmed-Work-Love-Play-When\/dp\/0374228442) with [a comparison to what John Maynard Keynes expected our society to become](http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/arts\/critics\/books\/2014\/05\/26\/140526crbo_books_kolbert?currentPage=all).<\/p>\n
> By 2028, he predicted, the \u201cstandard of life\u201d in Europe and the United States would be so improved that no one would need to worry about making money. \u201cOur grandchildren,\u201d Keynes reckoned, would work about three hours a day, and even this reduced schedule would represent more labor than was actually necessary…<\/p>\n
> In the future, Keynes imagined, the fruits of capitalism would redeem capitalism…<\/p>\n
> It is, to say the least, disappointing that things haven\u2019t turned out that way\u2014that inequality has grown, that leisure is scarce, that even the rich complain of being overwhelmed. And yet so much of what we do, collectively and individually, suggests that we still believe more wealth is the answer. Reexamining this belief would probably be a good idea\u2014that is, if anyone had the time for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Elizabeth Kolbert summarizes the new book [Overwhelmed](http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Overwhelmed-Work-Love-Play-When\/dp\/0374228442) with [a comparison to what John Maynard Keynes expected our society to become](http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/arts\/critics\/books\/2014\/05\/26\/140526crbo_books_kolbert?currentPage=all). > By 2028, he predicted, the \u201cstandard of life\u201d in Europe and the United States would be so improved that no one would need to worry about making money. \u201cOur grandchildren,\u201d Keynes reckoned, would work…more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[370,374,6,383],"tags":[358],"class_list":["post-5279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-happiness-2","category-mindfulness","category-philosophy","category-work","tag-tagged"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9wjHJ-1n9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5280,"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5279\/revisions\/5280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bob.ryskamp.org\/brain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}