by Graham T.T. Molitor
Introduction
Leisure time – as previously noted in the initial article in this two-part series – benefited from health and medical advances and a host of other life-extending developments that increased longevity. Other time savings resulted from a staggering array of labor saving technologies involving personal chores and household maintenance. This section reveals how “free time” was won by reductions in working time required to sustain individual basic needs. Mastery of new ways to get tasks done has contributed mightily to securing more time to move beyond enormous time commitments to sate personal needs. Throughout history humans have continuously honed their mastery of technologies that enable prodigious increases in output with less and less human input.(continue…)