This reminds me of Juliet Schor's work (an economist). She talks about retreating away from urban areas some, like, in some revolution type way, but I think that is going a bit far.
One idea is: technology has resulted in efficiency increases. These increases have resulted into more compensation for those with capital to deploy technology, but the floor worker (though more efficient) has similar compensation.
So, the efficiency gains of technology, today, are routed toward (going back to the original link) maintaining the status quo. Instead we can 'redefine work' and spend less time working for the owners, and instead contributing to our local communities, etc.
I think the ideas are nice, but trust me: no office full of full-time people wants to hire you for 2 days a week. Part-time is generally unacceptable. I speak from experience - try replying to a recruiter as much.
Techy people can a lot of money, let's say 130k for mid-career at BigCorp in BigCity. Try to scale that down; can you work half-time and pull in 65k? Nope.
These are similar to the ideas of Buckminster Fuller too, about technology and society. I think it's very interesting but very difficult.
Here's a video about her ideas and book:
http://vimeo.com/12034640 http://www.amazon.com/Plenitude-New-Economics-True-Wealth/dp...
One idea is: technology has resulted in efficiency increases. These increases have resulted into more compensation for those with capital to deploy technology, but the floor worker (though more efficient) has similar compensation.
So, the efficiency gains of technology, today, are routed toward (going back to the original link) maintaining the status quo. Instead we can 'redefine work' and spend less time working for the owners, and instead contributing to our local communities, etc.
I think the ideas are nice, but trust me: no office full of full-time people wants to hire you for 2 days a week. Part-time is generally unacceptable. I speak from experience - try replying to a recruiter as much.
Techy people can a lot of money, let's say 130k for mid-career at BigCorp in BigCity. Try to scale that down; can you work half-time and pull in 65k? Nope.
These are similar to the ideas of Buckminster Fuller too, about technology and society. I think it's very interesting but very difficult.