From Slate's Moneybox
A new drug called Modafinil appears to let people get by with much less sleep which could have a large impact on society and the economy. Garrett Jones offers some speculations about this, but I think the main thing that needs to be emphasized is simply that it's very hard to say what the real implications are.
The most important place to start is probably just to remember that
the world is a great big place full of enormous diversity. People in
certain kinds of high-status professions—CEOs and Ezra Klein and
such—will presumably be de facto required to work 18 hour days if they
can get by on two hours of sleep. All the way at the other end of the
spectrum, people like migrant factory workers in China (or whatever the
new China is in terms of sweatshop work) will probably do the same,
working super-long workweeks in order to save up money and go back home.
But beyond that . . . I dunno. A larger labor supply could push down
wages reversing the historic trend toward shorter working hours in
developed countries....MORE
