Even ignoring time spent doing non-work things we don't do, free time has increased a lot over a century. We have good data on this. Factory shifts circa 1900 w

Even ignoring time spent doing non-work things we don't do, free time has increased a lot over a century. We have good data on this. Factory shifts circa 1900 were long, and 2-day weekends rare. Unless "centuries ago" means several centuries, in which case maybe it's murkier, the pre-industrial world was different. IIRC hours worked increased in the pre-industrial build-up to the revolution -- perhaps because there was more to buy, and people adjusted to try to buy things, rather than stopping when they had enough to eat.