[grammaton]

>we still work shorter hours, take more holidays and have more leasure activity than our ancestors

No, we don't. Peruse any study on this subject by a reputable researcher - we actually work far more hours and have much less leisure time than almost any point in prior history (the notable exception perhaps being the end of the 19th century).

[d4nt]

Apologies, I stand corrected.

But people used to work 6 days a week with no paid vacation time. What about all the slaves who worked 16 hour days. All those children in factories or down mines, are all those hours being factored in?

[colomon]

Can you back this up with any sort of citation?

[grammaton]

For a good overview:

http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_w...

Which is a summary of

http://books.google.com/books?id=E1clEkV_1w8C

for a more thorough treatment:

http://books.google.es/books?id=APYDRo_ATicC

Or

"Man's Rise to Civilization As Shown by the Indians of North America from Primeval Times to the Coming of the Industrial State"

Or

(and I do not intend this as sarcasm, please understand) just about any introductory anthropology textbook.

Also - and I truly wish I could find the link, but it's buried somewhere in my delicious account - there is an excellent article out there about how workers in agrarian France basically screwed off for six months at a time once the growing season was over and winter came around - the literally spent most of their time just sleeping!