The Future Isn't What it Used to Be

"Leisure"
Tales of Future Past

"In the 1960s the odds on favourite as to what life would be like in the 21st century could be summed up in one word: leisure. Many perfectly sober thinkers believed that the rising tide of automation, computerisation, robotics, efficiency, modern management techniques, atomic power, instant communications and all that would so improve productivity, cut the need for labour, and create so much real wealth that people would not need to work so much. Indeed, Arthur C. Clarke went so far as to say that technology would eliminate the 99% of all human labour from the lowliest ditch digger to the highest executive. Most people wouldn't need to work much, if at all, and those who did would be restricted by law to only a few days a week and be expected to retire by age 47...."

Didn't quite work out that way, did it?

Then there's the way work was going to be in "The Future:"

"Future Work"
Tales of Future Past

"The future isn't going to build itself, so one of the more unpleasant facts is that even in the 21st century someone has to get up and make the tea. Still, it won't be so bad. The work week will only be 16 hours, there'll be lots of robots to help out, and retirement will be at age 40. What could go wrong?..."

Tales of Future Past gives a fairly thorough look at what The Future (with capital letters) was supposed to be like. With tongue firmly in cheek, for the most part.

On the whole, the Lemming prefers the way things actually are working out.

And that's a whole new topic.