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<p>hmm my mindset is that what people want from money (or from working) is determined by biological instincts and that person’s environment (which includes whatever social/cultural pressures exist in it). </p>
<p>in the absence of any ‘society’ for instance people still want food and sex, but they don’t want cars and pretty clothes. </p>
<p>anyway, quality of life is of course subjective. I’m not saying that because our ancestors worked less than us that it proves they had higher-quality lives (as measured by their contentment/happiness or whatever). But I do think that it should cast some doubt on the idea that life has only got better on the average or something like that. or that it has gotten better on the average in all areas of life.</p>
<p>agrarian societies didn’t replace hunter and gatherer societies because the people in them had higher quality lives. They replaced them because they were more powerful and able to out-compete the hunter and gatherer groups.</p>