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I think the older I get and the more I see all of us being alienated from the fruits of our labors, the more I realize that there is/was value in the reproductive labor of food production, clothing production, etc. I don't mean that we should all go back to being serfs (though, there are studies that show they worked less than we do), but I think that there's something lost when most people don't have anything of value they can point to and say "I made that" or "I had a hand in that." Most people have bullshit jobs that have very little to do with human thriving/surviving and at the same time, don't see more people doing science or art or poetry. IDK what the solution is, but it sure feels like we've been collectively sold a bill of goods in a lot of ways.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 week ago (5 children)

    Those "they worked less" articles often twist and lose the truth. They worked less on the specific work for their masters maybe, but they had to because they had to work at home; everything and I mean everything took longer back then. They needed more time to prepare food and darn their socks and split firewood for the winter and whatnot. They couldn't just run to the nearest store if they needed a loaf of bread. They had to actually make it. So yes, they "worked less" but they also worked a lot more doing their house chores just to survive.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    laundry was a total bitch too

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago*

    Any functional spin laundry machine is saving more time than anything else in the house.

    I remember helping my grandmother with the wring washer: the tub would swish only but not spin, so you had to pull out each item and run it through the wringer assembly above the tub, like a giant set of pasta rollers just waiting to eat your hand. Barely faster than beating them on rocks.

    I still hang laundry on the line to dry when weather and clean air allow.

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