The primary goal of technological advancement should be to increase people's efficiency so that they have more leisure time.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for t

Although I concur with the first part of the prompt that the primary goal of technological advancement ought to be to enhance productivity, I disagree with second part of the issue that this increase should be used to have more leisure time. As far as I am concerned the humankind has a plethora of problems which ought to be address at the first turn from famine and children mortality to search of renewable sources of energy.

To begin with, I completely agree that the main goal of technological advancement is to increase people's effectiveness. Economists aver that productivity is the key characteristic of society which makes it poor or reach and then more productive polity is than more wealth it creates. For instance, we may take a look at the dawn of China, since the middle of the 1980s productivity of its workers has dramatically increased as well as country's GDP per capita. Such a marvel in contemporary conditions may be achieved by two ways: by using a cheap labor which is limited and had already reached its limit or by technological advancement which China has used. Today the country has the second economy in the world, perhaps, without the technological advancement this achievement will be impossible.

However, the second part of author's statement that this productivity should be used to have more leisure time, seems to be unreasonable and even childish owing to the fact that mankind has many problems which may and should be solved via increase in productivity. For example, many countries undergo a significant shortage of food which often leads to famine amount people, especially, in the poorest countries which have weak and inefficient economics such as Nigeria, Somali and other African states. This problem may be tackled by increase in productivity in other more advanced countries, for instance, by donating food surplus to the penurious countries. Such programs have already worked and their existence is plausible only because of technological advancement of western countries which donate the food.

Of course, it is important to say that one of the results of the technological advancement is shortening of time spent at work, in fact, today standard of eight hours of work per day is only possible because of the tech advancement. For instance, before the first machines were created, men worked at manufacturing for 14-15 hours per day at least in tsar’s Russia. The size of shift was initially reduced after machinery was installed at plants to 12 hours. In today's conditions an employ is able to work eight hours per day without loses in productivity. In fact, it is possible that time which should be devoted to work will decrease in the future but, it is rather a byproduct than the main goal of the technological advancement.

In conclusion, although I concur with the idea that the main purpose of technological advancement is to increase people's efficiency, I cannot agree that this enhancement in it should be used to have more time for recreational activities. In fact, I believe that humanity has a lot of urgent issues which should be tackled at the first turn.