The mythology is that these changes simply came about, or were benevolently granted us by the owning class--but this is simply fiction. It was tireless direct action waged by the working class that forced the capitalist elites to pass on profits and adopt the eight-hour workday.
Now, like everything else, we see a rollback being waged as capitalists assume even greater control in our society. In the continued decline of unionism (wrought by the ineffectiveness of the trade unions, incidentally -- whose principal purpose is to keep divided workers working, rather than safeguarding their rights), capitalists have more power than ever, and have sought to flex their muscle in their endless quest for increased profits.
It is because of this that we see people working 50-, 60-, and even 80- hour work weeks again, and child labor is again in the vogue. This is a result of what is being called "globalization," which is essentially the worldwide dominance of capitalism.
People are also finding that one job is not enough to meet their needs, and the needs of their families; thus, many people are working two jobs in a vain attempt at making ends meet. This is the "miracle" of the marketplace!
In past ages, popular images of progress and industrialism would show people working less than ever, as technology made people more productive -- however, this fatuous mythology has been roundly disproved by the reality that capitalistic ownership means that workers with improved technology will simply be expected to do even more, at the risk of losing their jobs. The idea of more free time has long since receded over the horizon as society remains trapped in the quest to bring a continuous flow of profits to capitalist troughs.
A new "advance" in the continued war against civil society waged by Capital is the increased use of home- and temporary workers.
Home work is being touted as a boon to beleaguered families -- now you can simply walk into another room of your home and you're on the job! Isn't "progress" a wonderful thing? So now, the capitalist workplace, instead of being confined to the office or the factory, has invaded the very home of the worker! One wonders where the worker will turn next, in order to get away from it all? The fact is, once the the home has been invaded, there's nowhere else to turn!
The explosion of temporary workers (e.g., contingent workers) is another display of the machinations of Capital. Here we have completely disempowered workers who are thoroughly atomized and isolated, and are completely dependent on the owning class for employment, serviced of course by the accomplice, the temporary agency. Temp agencies talk about the "flexibility" temping offers -- a claim best left unexamined, as there is nothing about a marginal, uncertain existence that affords one flexibility!
These are both cost-cutting measures undertaken by Capital to maximize their profits -- after all, home and temporary workers needn't be given the same (mis)treatment granted everyday workers -- you don't have to give them health care, you can take advantage of their relative isolation; for the capitalist, these "advances" are ideal! Is it any wonder that temporary employment is the single largest civilian bloc of workers in the US? There are over 3 million temporaries out there, operating essentially as the migrant workers of the postindustrial, service-based economy in the US.
Thus, so long as the worker continues to play by Capital's game, they will simply continue to assist in their own exploitation.
A shorter workday will never come about in the absence of continuos, organized, and determined worker direct action to make it an issue. It certainly won't be easy -- particularly in the post-GATT and NAFTA world where capitalists simply declare that they'll move abroad if they don't get their way; but it's essential that workers pull together and recognize that the only way they're going to get more free time is if they fight for it. It was done over a century ago by anarchists, at the cost of lives, but it was done nonetheless.
The question the worker has to consider is: why do you work? Again the capitalist cult paints us all as atoms of consumption -- that we work to buy assorted widgets and gizmos; that the capitalist is merely filling a need. But if that were the case -- why does business spend billions on advertising every year to persuade people to buy things -- creating the demand that capitalists pretend is already there!
People don't work themselves to the bone for a new car, or for a new refrigerator -- they work to establish a measure of autonomy for themselves; they work to try to secure their own liberty -- liberty which was taken from them the moment the capitalist took their freedom from them through ownership of productive means. When that happened, the worker was enslaved, and the balance irrevocably tipped in favor of the capitalist.
Workers who expect gratitude from employers; who expect fair treatment; who expect to spend less time on the job instead of more time, are deluding themselves -- they are expected to work for the gain of the owners: that's the role of the worker in capitalist society. So long as the worker is passive and isolated, this abuse will continue to increase until we're back to de facto slavery instead of wage slavery (where slavery is considered freedom).
This is what the pure capitalist wants, ultimately, which accounts for the existence of sweatshops. Sweatshops wouldn't exist if it weren't in the financial interests of capitalists for them to. The fact is, over 1.3 billion workers make less than $1 a day, according to the latest Worldwatch report on the state of the world. Would the economics eggheads consider that a living wage?
Workers everywhere owe it to themselves to organize across trade lines to find their common interest: a life of liberty, and the road to that goal is more time for themselves, rather than less. But it won't come easy, as is the case whenever a privileged elite abuses a majority -- capitalists will fight hard to keep things the way they are; just look at what happened to the workers in Decauter, Illinois.
Don't look to Capital for emancipation -- you will only find slavery. Take action now among your coworkers to make the four-hour workday a reality, instead of a utopian fantasy. Anarchists did it once, decades ago; we can do it again.