For the college-educated elite, work has morphed into a religious identity—promising identity, transcendence, and community, but failing to deliver... In his 1930 essay “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” the economist John Maynard Keynes predicted a 15-hour workweek in the 21st century, creating the equivalent of a five-day weekend... In a 1957 article in The New York Times, the writer Erik Barnouw predicted that, as work became easier, our identity would be defined by our hobbies, or our family life... These post-work predictions weren’t entirely wrong. By some counts, Americans work much less than they used to. The average work year...
