Paragon Fury said:
If you read any of the research by most sociologists, psychologists etc., you'll find they're generally in agreement on one thing: the US is statistically the hardest-working and most work-driven Western society. We, the US as a whole, have an almost unhealthy attachment to work and working. We take the least amount of time off, work longer hours, and place the importance of work above a lot of other things. The extreme work ethic is integral and inseparable part of American society.
Of course, it pales in comparison to some other countries, particularly countries like Japan, but against other western nations there isn't much of a comparison.
"Most hours" is of course not the same thing as "hardest working", and in the US it is statistically speaking the former (it's rather difficult to measure how hard someone is working).
This is mostly due to the system of the US, not so much the culture (though culture is also related to these systems). The psychological and sociological phenomena are the same pretty much everywhere: we want to "keep up with the Joneses". Or rather, we want to do just a little bit better (people prefer earning $100,000 when neighbours earn $50,000 than earn $150,000 when neighbours earn $200,000 or something like that). Thing is, when we do better, we move into a better neighbourhood. The result is that the benchmark to which we compare our performance and salary increases. Which means everybody except those at the absolute top are pretty much screwed, comparing themselves to equals or those above them, not to those below them.
So where does this tie in to Americans making long hours? In most countries on the Continent there is a progressive tax system and there is a strong government influence on number of hours worked. For instance, in the Netherlands in the 1980s, the government, labour unions and employer organisations agreed to reduce the number of hours worked on a fulltime job to reduce unemployment and wage costs. We also have a very progressive tax system which means working more doesn't increase wages very much and no employer may force his employees to work overtime. The result of these various factors is that economic incentives to work long hours are fairly low and a culture of working to live has been created/maintained.
The alternative is a rat race where everybody tries to get ahead and where, as a consequence, nobody (on average) gets ahead. Above a certain income (around $10000 p/y), increases in income do not result in an increase in well-being anyway, so working more hours and producing more only results in wasting valuable resources.
@MelasZepheos: Oh come on your evidence is limited to one example. The Greeks and Italians are not necessarily lazy either (I believe the Greeks make the most hours per year in Europe), they just voted for idiots who didn't manage their country very well (Greece has always had a very strong communist core; perhaps if they hadn't been prevented of becoming a communist country they wouldn't have been so... misguided).
(Also sorry for the absolutely ridiculous government the Netherlands has had in the past 2 years, which wasn't any better than the worst governments in southern Europe.)