[gasbag]

> At a far more macro level, perhaps one of our biggest forms of "progress" in human history has simply been our shift away from the need to constantly spend all day, every day, hunting for sustenance to get thru the day and the next day and so on.

This is probably a myth. Studies have shown that hunter-gatherer societies likely spent between 20 and 40 hours per week obtaining food. They are still believed to have been plagued by high infant mortality, disease, and warfare, so they were still leading relatively unstable lives when compared with today. But the average hunter-gatherer may have largely been better off (healthier, with more leisure time) than the average worker during the Industrial Revolution.

While we're near the topic, the five-day work week itself is something that a lot of us take for granted, but it has only been adopted nationwide in America for 80 years.