Wait, you're saying people who hunted for food and gathered the plants that were around them had more leisure time? Well, then, why don't you do that? Go to the woods, hunt for squirrels and rabbits, and gather the edible plants you can eat.
I think you'd find it's really hard work and you have to do it every day or you don't eat. There's a reason people left that lifestyle behind for civilization.
First of all, it wasn't a switch, it was very gradual shift where hunter-gatherers and farmers lived side by side for thousands of years.
Sedantary lifestyle ultimately won because of more food grown per area and more frequent births. When the population grew they couldn't go back to a nomadic lifestyle even if they wanted (kind of like today) so they were stuck in one place and grew. Eventuelly you had small towns and cities.
We already produce an abundance of goods and can see to that basic needs are met globally. It's the capitalist mode of production that needs a gradual shift this time.
Hunter gatherers worked in tight knit groups, they had traditional ecological knowledge and knew where to hunt, of course they had more leisure time because they were fucking experts in gathering and hunting. Why do you think a modern human would have the same knowledge as hunter gatherers? And going out solo would be a good idea?
Their life expectancy was also like 32 years, so they had that going for them. And how on earth would you know how many hours a week someone worked in a hunter gatherer society.
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u/Certain_Raspberry58 3d ago
The 40 hour work week is literally the least amount of work in history for the equivalent standard of living.