I’m paraphrasing a recent Slashdot comment that really stuck a chord with me and galvanized some thoughts I’ve been having for a while.

We have the technology and resources so that people don’t need to work as much as they do, but instead we choose to continue with this outdated concept of “40 hours a week for everyone”. So, what do you do with all these people? Well, you make them spend exorbitant amounts of time in meetings generating data and reports to make them look productive. We are squandering the most glorious time in history in terms of energy resources, technology and machinery in order to maintain an out of date social construct.

• So many are productive in today’s world, but doing what?
• What are we producing and for who?
• What bennefit do these products provide?

We should work and consume less and spend more time being creative.