[wyager]

We are working the same hours as 50 years ago because we want to be able to purchase cell phones and modern cars bad stuff. You could work a lot less and live with 50s level technology, but almost no one chooses to.

Also, if a shareholder makes more money, they buy more, creating new labor requirements elsewhere.

[psychometry]

Your first point is true, but it's not the only explanation for why people still work 40 hours a week. My explanation is far more influential.

And your second point is blatantly false. That's the same, tired, rhetoric Republicans have been spewing since Reagan. Owners of companies doing well won't reinvest that into their companies unless there is demand on the consumer side and they don't spend all of that money on consumables like a worker would (since they have to).