My preconditions/assumptions: 40 hour a week for work 3 hour a week for commute 8 hours of sleep a night 2 hours a day outside of work for your meals

My preconditions/assumptions: 40 hour a week for work 3 hour a week for commute 8 hours of sleep a night 2 hours a day outside of work for your meals 7*24-7*8-40-3-7*2 == 55 This leaves you 55 hours a week. This obviously doesn't including errands and lord forbid you have make your own food or take care of a child. It also doesn't account for quality of hours(Ex: the hour right after waking up or right before bed are less productive). Not to mention you might want to have sex regularly or just be social with your friends. I haven't even account for basic grooming like showering or brushing your teeth. So you've got 55 hours a week of being tired after a day of work to live your life. Assuming you work starting at the age of 18 and retire at 64 you have a working lifetime of: (52*55*(64-18))/(24*365) = 15 years All of which you are tired from work. I'm with you 100%, people should be fulfilled outside of work, but its not hard to see why people want fulfillment at work. There is not a lot of life left after it. Lets not even try to do the calculations for those doing the 50-60(or worse) hours a week because of two jobs or a startup or what have you.