From my strategic finance class I'm enrolled in, France apparently has some pretty lenient work scheduling, 4 days a week for most people, and they take about a month off each year at one time (meaning 30 days in a row off) yet I don't know if I'd say their standard of living is better than the US.

It is an interesting topic, I'd rather work 4 10 hour days than 5 8s, but I also drive an hour each way to/from work. So an 8 hour day for me is immediately 10 hours. But working fewer days would not work with my college schedule... so I'm caught right now...

I do think that we are not productive the full 40 hours a week... at least not in my job. BUT... there are weeks where we are overly productive in 70+ hours, so it balances out to probably about an average of 40 or so productive hours a week for 50 weeks a year...

And I'm paid pretty well... but I'd prefer to be paid better and work slightly less... thus back in college for my Masters.