Just for some perspective, the 40-hour work week is a relatively new invention that only surfaced with the recent rise of the white-collar workforce. In my pare

Just for some perspective, the 40-hour work week is a relatively new invention that only surfaced with the recent rise of the white-collar workforce. In my parents' day, the 40-hour work week was called "bankers hours" and this was used in a highly derogatory "sure must be nice" tone of voice. Many or most of us are probably descended from farmers that worked doing hard physical labor from sun-up to sun-down six days a week at a bare minimum with the rare holiday being reserved for family gatherings and religious observances. No travel at all unless you could hire someone (or left your kids at home) to feed the pigs or whatever while you were gone. I'll take 40 hours over that kind of life in a hearbeat, thankyouverymuch. Although I am still trying very hard to make it so that I don't have to do even that much for the rest of my life. In general, I don't disagree that it's sad that we spend such a huge proporation of our precious, finite time on our planet working. Most work without enjoyment because that's how you put food on the table. On the other hand, the person who cracks this nut will enjoy unprecedented fame and their name in the history books for the rest of human civilization if they figure it out. (And no, it's not going to happen no matter how many 140-char political rants there are on the bird site. Very arguably, those are in fact the opposite of progress no matter which "side" you think you are on.)