That may ring true in the States, but in countries with universal health care? (Not having lived abroad, I wouldn't know) Something more fundamental about our

That may ring true in the States, but in countries with universal health care? (Not having lived abroad, I wouldn't know) Something more fundamental about our present economics may be at the heart of it here.... I'm no economist, but with expanding technology (Capital), diminishing demand for Labor could make for a mass prisoner's dilemma of sorts. Employees everywhere have such little negotiating room due to increasing job scarcity that they have to compete on hours worked and can't "cooperate" by working less. This seems to even hold true at the national level -- France has managed to keep most players "cooperating" (working fewer hours) but the country's economy has suffered in the global competitive landscape. Another way to look at it could be more polarizing. The best of the new white collar class (engineers, entrepreneurs, executives, etc) has each unit of labor multiplied so significantly by the internet that there is tremendous incentive to work a lot. On the flip side, the blue collar of today -- those mentioned as call center workers, filing clerks, etc -- are just warm-blooded, more versatile machines, doing noncreative work of too little value to be worthwhile without long hours.