The primary goal of technological advancement should be to increase people's efficiency so that they have more leisure time.

The statement claims that the ultimate goal of the technological advancement should be to increase the people’s efficiency in order for the people to have more leisure time. I disagree with such a claim because of two reasons: First, technological advancements cannot provide more leisure time for the working class, and secondly, there are other equally important goals that technological advancement can achieve. In what follows the reasons will be discussed.

Technological advancement makes it easier and more efficient to do works. however such ease paradoxically increases the working hours with reducing incomes. People are paid based on the time they put for a work. Having become easier, jobs earn less than their retrospective harder form; a man will be paid, when he can reap a farm with technological machines in one day, equal to one day of work. In the past, the same man needed to put more time with the same farm using sickle and would have gained more money related to the more time he had spent. Hence the man with reaping machine should work harder to compensate the lower income to earn enough money to live. Regarding a statistical reference, in 1960 the average U.S. family had only one breadwinner, who worked just over 40 hours per week. Since then the average work week has increased to nearly 60 hours today; and in most families there are now more than one breadwinner. Hence with the ease that technology offers people, people need to work more.

Concomitantly, when a work becomes easier, competition for that work increases. The reaping becomes a job that more people can do and does not necessarily need to have muscular power and enduring the heat of the sun. Individuals are on reaping machines with the air conditioner now a days. Hence an individual should work harder to compensate the lower incomes and not to lose his or her work to competitors. Hence with the ease that technological advancement offers the societies, lesser earning and more competition cause people to have more working hour than providing leisure time.

Now, although the leisure time is important to achieve there are certain other goals that are equally important to direct technological advancement toward them. Leisure time is important. Indeed, it is in such a time that people can have family time, relieve their stress and have fun. Otherwise the whole society falls into stressful conditions and the ramifications of less leisure time would plague the whole society. However, other equally important goals should be also considered rather than seeking only the leisure time. One of the most important of them is to help human to compensate for the natural weaknesses in him/her. It is with the technological advancement that a crippled man who can only move his eyes voluntarily, changed the way we are looking at the universe; Stephen Hawking Is a physician who suffers from a genetic disease but technology capacitated him to create a great contribution, the string theory. Technological advancement made him able to talk, or change the pages of the books he wants to read and so many other things that made him strong enough to stand against his illness.

In short, the goal of technological advancement should be to make human stronger to face and overcome his/her natural weaknesses. Leisure time can benefit societies so it is needed for societies to offer enough leisure time for their people. However as it is discussed in the body paragraphs, technological advancement alone cannot make the working hours lesser than to offer more leisure time, and even if it can, there are other precious goals that should be equally considered.