Preindustrial workers worked fewer hours than today's (2009)
I don't think this is about "your employer owning you".  I also don't think this is about capitalism (which is just private property, economic freedom, and a government to enforce those two things).  Instead, I think the pressure to work so much comes from society, which wields incredible control over all of us.<p>More specifically, I believe that the 40-hour work-week is a consequence of the ascension of wealth creation as the primary goal of our societies.  Past civilizations, rich and poor, did not see the creation of wealth as their raison d'etre.  Modern civilizations do and, as a result, we're sacrificing everything else (autonomy, privacy, free time, family, etc) at the altar of wealth-creation.<p>It's not all bad: wealth makes people's lives better.  But there are downsides (like overwork, the feeling that you have no control over your life, the feeling that your life lacks meaning, lack of meaningful social relationships, and so on).<p>I'm borrowing this argument from Hannah Arendt.  I find her incredibly convincing: she sees this whole process as having kicked off with the Reformation, which resulted in the expropriation of ecclesiastical property in Europe that had been serving as the commons.  Since then, we've never had much of a commons and wealth creation has slowly become the primary goal.