> They wish they had been a better more active parent, they wish they had spent more time with family and friends. Where do these people spend most of their time? Work. Where do they regret spending most of their time? Work.
I don't think you have much evidence for that, do you? A 40 hour work week does take up time, but still leaves enough time for other activities. Most people don't die during their working life either.
Sure, working more isn't healthy, but work is unavoidable the way society is organized. Until you're willing to give up running water and supermarkets, you're going to have to work. There's not going to be a reevaluation of the modern idea of work. All you can do is limit the excesses.
> [..] A 40 hour work week does take up time, but still leaves enough time for other activities. [...]
And then, there are all these (low-paid) jobs where 40 hours won't keep you alive, all those people that need to commute an hour each way and so on. And the , it's easily a 50-60 hours/week if you take door-to-door time.
Yes, change your life and get something better. But that's sometimes not so easy.
> A 40 hour work week does take up time, but still leaves enough time for other activities.
How much is enough time?
> Most people don't die during their working life either.
But they do tend to have kids long before retiring.
Work is unavoidable, yes, at least until we can automate everything. But are 40 hour weeks unavoidable for our currently standard of living? I doubt it.
How much is enough? With the dwindling labor force, 40 hours is going to be the minimum. Automating everything is a pipe dream. It's really hard, the break-through tech isn't there, and there are not enough engineers to build robots for all those tasks.
I don't think you have much evidence for that, do you? A 40 hour work week does take up time, but still leaves enough time for other activities. Most people don't die during their working life either.
Sure, working more isn't healthy, but work is unavoidable the way society is organized. Until you're willing to give up running water and supermarkets, you're going to have to work. There's not going to be a reevaluation of the modern idea of work. All you can do is limit the excesses.
So, unionize.