American capitalism really is a harsh taskmaster, isn’t it? Those excessively long hours that everyone works, so different from the ease and leisure that applies in Europe . . . . The thing is, for all the complaints about and pointing at the way in which the American work-week has been rising over the decades there’s one uncomfortable little fact (or, depending upon how you look at it, hugely comforting one): At the same time as everyone has been working ever harder for The Man — and getting nowhere according to the doomsayers — it’s also true that Americans have been getting ever more leisure time.
Read the whole thing.