In February of 1946, the future of mankind was changed forever. An electronic marvel was unveiled to the world capable of outstanding feats of calculation at amazing speeds. I am of course talking about the ENIAC, the first electronic digital "computer". It consisted of 18,000 vacuum tubes and consumed 180,000 Watts of power (and we think the Athlon has heat management problems!) This invention would break into new territory for mankind, do in seconds what used to take weeks or months. It is the grandfather of the modern computer, that amazing device that sits on your desk, in your oven, all over your car and now even in greeting cards! With this invention came great promises of doing work faster, making life easier and freeing up time for people's private life. This machine would allow us to do more in less time, more efficient workforce. It all sounded so good!
So the question I pose to you all is "Where the hell is all the free time?" We were "Supposed" to be able to breeze through our workload and have the extra time to spend with friends and family, volunteer to save the forests and attend the celebrations of the planetary alignments and overall cosmic harmony. Well friends, it looks like we've been duped! There is no doubt in anyone's mind that we are a much more efficient and productive workforce than we were pre-computer age. The catch is that the employers just keep expecting more work per employee. As our productivity increases, one would logically deduct that our compensation would increase at a similar rate but in fact we are losing ground to inflation and taxes. The average work week has increased since the inception of the computer, not decreased. In 1950 the average workweek was 36.8 hours, by 1994 that had climbed to 42.3 with over 20% of those surveyed putting in more than 50 hours (Stats. Canada 1997). The amount of gross salary workweek wages to purchase a house in the same time frame had risen over 80% and more than doubled to purchase an average car. This is only for gross salaries, this doesn't take into account how we are getting gouged with ever increasing taxes (can someone say gasoline? GST??) I bet you optimists out there think this is all going to improve over time... Right!!
So this is progress huh? We perform much more efficiently, work longer hours, for less relative pay and for a higher cost of living as time goes on. All this and I haven't even hit on the topic of job security or retirement benefits!
|
