Classical economics does not claim to want to increase demand, and Keynesian economic only wants to correct for unnaturally low (or high) demand due to short run fluctuations.<p>There is nothing wrong with a four hour work week.  The reason people still work long hours is not careful engineering of the economy to keep demand high, but people&#x27;s natural desire for essentials like healthcare, and also luxuries and status-signalling goods.  Also hours seem to be decreasing in Europe, which has a different culture to the US.<p>Also, one (left-wing) colleague of mine made the following point to me when I said something similar about economic growth: Would I be happy to see the world level out on a 1920&#x27;s standard of living, including healthcare?  If not, why is the current standard of living acceptable?  Especially when a given <i>average</i> standard of living will also entail people who are much worse off.  So to raise the standard of the worst off, we most likely need growth for everyone.