Sorry, I can't stomach another self-righteous screed against people's private choices that offend the sensibility of the author. It seems that I was born without the "meddle in other people's affairs" gene, which is so widespread and popular in society. I can't get worked up in a hissy-fit if other people smoke, or watch goat porn, or work more than I would chose to. A lot of people think something is wrong with me, but I enjoy the free time I save from not caring about others' private lives.

The author's flawed world-view can be summed up in the following quote:

>In other words, if as a society we made a collective decision to get by on the amount we produced and consumed seventeen years ago, we could cut back from the standard forty-hour week to 5.3 hours per day

The error is that we "as a society" don't make choices. Individuals do. If I thought a conspiracy of government officials and oligarchs were making work choices for "society" as a whole, then I might be as offended as the author.

Humans have consistently chosen to live better rather than work less. I live in much greater wealth than my father did at my age in the '60s and '70s and I am happy about that. You would have a hard time convincing me to give up dishwashers, central air, my own bathroom, wireless internet, and satellite TV in order to work less. The average person in the western world has the electronic equivalent of hundreds of human servants working for him. It's my choice to accept the luxuries available to me, and other people are free to make different choices.