The method of a leisure class without duties was, however, extraordinarily wasteful. None of the members of the class had to be taught to be industrious, and the class as a whole was not exceptionally intelligent. The class might produce one Darwin, but against him had to be set tens of thousands of country gentlemen who never thought of anything more intelligent than fox-hunting and punishing poachers.
I'm down. We should be massively ramping up the amount of leisure time in our society so that we, as a society, never miss out on a potential Darwin or Lincoln or Jesus or whomever. How many world-changing, mental giants have we missed out on because they couldn't free their minds from working 40+ hours a week?
Well, apart from that last fictional character who has arguably brought more harm than good through his ideas (and arguably through them being misinterpreted), I'm all down with that.
Absolutely wrong.
If you have evidence that this character existed, please point to it more specifically than a whole Wikipedia article.
Nothing about "Jesus" is hotly debated because there isn't a single mention of a "Jesus" in any believable document to begin with.
This is not the place to discuss, but I didn't want your wrong message to be the end of it.
I don't know. If the venture finance industry has taught us anything, it's that one big win can pay for a whole mess of failures, and then some.
If you tell a bunch of rich people they've got a good chance of financing the next Leonardo DaVinci or Thomas Edison by providing the living essentials to 5,000 people, you could probably get a few to take you up on it. Just make sure you're cutting them in on the profits.
Unfortunately from someone looking from the outside, it looks like the venture industry you talk about is very small and restricted to a few areas.
Maybe one day... but even with companies that come from that culture, normally after reaching a certain point of greatness, many stop helping the solution and give in to the system in pursuit of more and more profits.
I'm very skeptical when it comes to changes in society. I really don't think it'll change anytime soon. At least not for better.
The standard 8 hour / 5 day work week in Europe did not happen after some day the rich and powerful decided it, far from it. Strong labor unions were the key into making it a reality. While they might be impeding financial growth and make some things more bureaucratic, the increase in living conditions makes them worth it.
I'm down. We should be massively ramping up the amount of leisure time in our society so that we, as a society, never miss out on a potential Darwin or Lincoln or Jesus or whomever. How many world-changing, mental giants have we missed out on because they couldn't free their minds from working 40+ hours a week?