Google founder Larry Page says people shouldn't work so much (which is easy to say when you're worth $32billion)
- Larry Page said that because it doesn't take much to achieve the jobs that we need complete, roles should be split or hours should be reduced
- He failed to suggest how workers could afford to live on fewer hours
- He spoke alongside fellow Google co-founder Sergey Brin in an interview with venture capitalist and billionaire Vinod Khosla last week
Google co-founder Larry Page has said people shouldn't work as much as they do - because there really is no need.
The tech mogul, who spoke alongside fellow Google founder Sergey Brin in an interview with venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, didn't expand on how people could afford to live if they worked less.
'If you really think about the things you need to make yourself happy - housing, security, opportunity for your kids - it's not that hard for us to provide those things,' he said in the interview last week.
He said the resources we need do not require as much effort to achieve as we think they do, and instead said that we only work to make ourselves feel needed.
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Speaking out: Larry Page, center alongside fellow Google founder Sergey Brin (right) and Vinod Khosla (left), said at an event last week that there is no need for people to work as much as they do
'I think there's a problem that we don't recognize,' he went on. 'There's a social problem.
'A lot of people aren't happy if they don't have anythings to do, so we need to give people things to do. You need to feel like you're needed and wanted.'
Instead, he suggested that we should work much less - or split jobs between more people - citing an example set by Virgin's founder, Richard Branson to battle unemployment in the U.K.
'He's been trying to get people to hire two part-time people instead of one full-time, so at least the young people can have a half-time job rather than no job,' he said.
Questions: Page, left, said people should work less - without explaining how they could afford to live
'If you have global unemployment, you just reduce work time.'
While explaining his view, Page, who is worth nearly $32 billion, according to Forbes, failed to outline exactly how people would afford to live on fewer hours, and presumably a lesser wage.
He added that he had asked many people if they would like to have an extra week of vacation or work fewer days in the week - and most said they would.
'Most people like working, but they'd also like to have more time with their family or to pursue their own interests,' he said.
Co-founder Brin said he had to 'quibble' with Page's view.
Comfortable: Page, pictured with his wife Lucy Southworth last year, is worth an estimated $32 billion
'I don't think that in the near term, the need for labor is going away,' he said. 'It gets shifted from one place to another, but people always want more stuff or more entertainment or more creativity or more something.'
Page, 41, launched Google in 1996 with Brin after they met while studying for PhDs at Stanford University before starting Google Inc. two years later.
He is married to Lucinda Southworth, a former model and research scientist, and together they have two children and live in a mansion in Palo Alto, California.
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