alt Hacker News> but the satisfaction of a day’s work was.
Rose colored glasses. “We won’t starve today” is not spiritually fulfilling. It’s survival.
People romanticize the past. Modern life is more comfortable specifically because everyone isn’t struggling to survive. (Obviously some still are.)
> Many jobs also improved your fitness unless you were injured.
That’s a real big “if”. You can go get a construction job right now. It will get you more fit. But it will probably also get you injured, especially over the long term.
Not to mention basic things like most of the population spending all of their free time having to craft and maintain their own clothes and furniture. Even many well-off, 'pampered' noble ladies in the Middle Ages spent every free moment spinning thread just to have enough to maintain household clothing.