I hate getting political on HN, but, more than anything else, at least in the USA, healthcare costs are a huge cause of this. That health coverage is tied to em

I hate getting political on HN, but, more than anything else, at least in the USA, healthcare costs are a huge cause of this. That health coverage is tied to employment creates a fixed cost on employers per-employee, rather than a transferrable marginal cost. It is nonsensical that we manage to have both high unemployment and long work-hours, but yet, it's cheaper for this to be the hiring pattern. All of that said, within the scope of software development (more relevant to this board), a major factor is Brooks' law, which leads to the startup culture of 80-hour weeks being "how things are done".