I tell you why "we" stopped striving to work less. The industrial revolution and the productivity it brought with it, allowed more people to get richer faster than ever before and that is a good thing but this led to a snowball effect: more and more people than ever were and are professionally chasing the richness and the surplus of wealth that is generated by the increase in productivity, innovation or work hours is directed predominantly to this class of people and they have no incentive to slow down the rhythm of economy. No matter how much you work or how much more productive you get, there will always be someone to pocket the surplus.