I'll escalate things by saying that even the European standard of say 5 weeks is in no way excessive. It still means working 90% of the weeks of the year. You

I'll escalate things by saying that even the European standard of say 5 weeks is in no way excessive. It still means working 90% of the weeks of the year. You could also look at it from another angle and explore what makes work so miserable. More often than not, it's not the hours, it's the intensity of it. Very high-paced, full of thousands of distractions, limited control over outcomes making it not rewarding, politics, the increased speed of change, etc. Modern work has the potential to burn you up much quicker than in simpler times. As for this last point, I cannot emphasize it enough. A recent study in my country revealed 30% of workers being close to a burnout and the vast majority of actual work disability cases to be burnout related. These dropouts creating even more pressure on the remaining work force. I truly believe we're at or near the peak of what the human mind can endure, even more so if you expect people to ride this out until the age of 70. This world is too complicated and too fast.