It’s easy to work more hours, but productivity (especially in white-collar jobs) is a different matter entirely. Study after study has shown that after 37 hours per week, productivity doesn’t just decline but actually goes into reverse. In other words, if you work 60 hours per week you’re less productive than if you worked only 35. This is because we humans get tired and stale, and you can’t innovate or work smarter when you’re tired and stale. US productivity on an adjusted hourly basis is less than that of several other OECD nations precisely because of this reason. Furthermore, the emotional and social costs of sacrificing family life to the Great God of Promotion are literally incalculable. If US citizens were less neurotic and less repressed perhaps they’d want to spend more time with their families instead of hiding in the office; in turn that would enable them to be less neurotic and repressed….