> Many countries have <40 hours/week and are still thriving.
But it's a fiction built on U.S. force projection. It's become apparent that none of these countries could defend themselves against an aggressive competitor.
Well you are comparing a single country of over 300 million (the US) with the countries in the EU that are on average 16-17 million. Do you think that makes sense?
Idk historically some European nations like Germany have been very successful at least at starting wars and people had their hands pretty full trying to defeat them.
I don’t think their past WW2 docility can be attributed to their inability at doing heavy industry or weapons development