A person claims that outside of subsistence farming, people 100 and 200 years ago worked fewer hours than people work today, so they had more time to live their lives.
It's impossible to turn the truth more on its head.
People in mining and manufacturing regularly worked 70 hour weeks.
The Lochner Supreme Court decision involved non-unionized bakers who worked over 60 hours a week. And Dickens' A Christmas Carol is built around the long working hours of even white collar employees.
Every time I see great anger about today's economic conditions, it's based on a misplaced romanticization of the past that has no touchstone in reality.
I think the people worked fewer hours in the past mythology also uses a modern distinction between work and non-work hours that was more blurry in the past.