While statistics are tricky, I think there's a decent chance your entire premise - that we have all had a modest cut to our hours in exchange for less consumer

While statistics are tricky, I think there's a decent chance your entire premise - that we have all had a modest cut to our hours in exchange for less consumer goods - is untrue. http://www.mybudget360.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/index_weekly_hours.jpg http://www.mybudget360.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/index_... http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/images/wsj_prod_vs_hours.gif http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/images/wsj_prod_vs_ho... https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/average-annual-hours-worked-per-employed-person-1979-2012_chartbuilder.png?w=640 https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/average-annual-ho... especially for allegedly supervisory positions with job security & a salary, which no longer have to pay overtime; Hours worked per full-time employee has gone up, while part-time hourly positions have become much more common. Hourly jobs we now expect to work just enough that no benefits are offered (~39.9 hours), and double up to 78.8 hours over two jobs if we want to actually support a family... the better half of retail jobs will respect that sort of arrangement, while the worse half will require you to work 25-39 hours virtually "on-call", coming in whenever a gap presents itself, if you want to achieve that many hours. The death of the labor movement has not helped the situation. The best I could find to support your argument is http://b-i.forbesimg.com/theapothecary/files/2013/07/PTEconomic.png http://b-i.forbesimg.com/theapothecary/files/2013/07/PTEcono... http://ibankcoin.com/news/files/2013/04/labor-force-participation-rate-march.png http://ibankcoin.com/news/files/2013/04/labor-force-particip...