Keynes predicted a 15-hour workweek. We got a 40-hour grind with 2.5x the output instead.

A new analysis of U.S. productivity data reveals a puzzling gap: while American workers are now 2.5 times more productive per hour than they were in 1973, the standard 40-hour workweek has remained stubbornly unchanged. The extra output that should have translated into massive amounts of free time simply didn't materialize as leisure for the average person.

The research suggests the 'gains' went elsewhere: 18 of the 24 'freed' hours per week never reached paychecks at all, while the other 6 arrived in a form that couldn't be taken as time off. This explains the pervasive feeling of working harder despite massive technological advancement and points to a fundamental mismatch between productivity growth and worker well-being in the modern economy. The tools exist for a 15-hour week, but the system isn't built to give it to us.