Miles Jackson wrote:
"In the U. S., it's an irrefutable fact that the average worker is working far, far more than the average worker in previous generations (we're about 400 hrs/yr higher than workers in the 1970s, if I recall correctly; Doug will probably check)."
Far from being an irrefutable fact, it is wrong.
hours of work per week UNITED STATES
37.7 1969 37.1 36.9 37.0 36.9 36.5 36.1 36.1 36.0 35.8 35.7 35.3 35.2 34.8 35.0 35.2 34.9 34.8 34.8 34.7 34.6 34.5 34.3 34.4 34.5 34.7 34.5 34.4 34.6 34.6 34.5 34.5 34.2 34.1 2002
>From the ILO website http://laborsta.ilo.org/, 'yearly data', choose
'America' and '4a'
I think the comment of Doug's Miles remembers is this:
"Total hours worked in the U.S. private sector have risen 70% since 1973; the pop is up only 43%. So the rise in aggregate consumption has come with a huge increase in the work effort"
Which is an estimate of the total hours worked, in relation to the total population, whereas you would need to relate it to the working population to get the hours worked by an average American. There is no questioning that American capital is using a lot more labour, because it employs many more people.