@zoec
If it's really true that as much of half the work we do could be eliminated
without any significant effect on overall productivity, why not just
redistribute the remaining work in such a way that everyone is working
four-hour days? Or four-day weeks with four months’ yearly vacation
time? Or some similarly easygoing arrangement? Why not start shutting
down the global work machine? If nothing else, it would probably be
the most effective thing we could do to put a break on global warming.

A hundred years ago, many assumed that the steady advance of
technology and labor-saving devices would have made this possible by
now, and the irony is that they were probably right.

We could easily all be putting in a twenty or even 15-hour workweek. Yet
for some reason, we as a society have collectively decided it's better to
have millions of human beings spending years of their lives pretending
to type into spreadsheets or preparing mind maps for PR meetings than
freeing them to knit sweaters, play with their dogs, start a garage band,
experiment with new recipes, or sit in cafes arguing about politics, and
gossiping about their friends' complex polyamorous love affairs.

- David Graeber
(Extract from the book; Bullshit Jobs)