alt Hacker NewsI think you're confused. I'm not making any moral judgements or prescriptions here. If you want to change society such that we're not working in exchange for money, then go ahead. Overtime is an example of a policy which limits that relationship.
However, while we live in the world where we're exchanging labor for money, it's not as simple as what you originally wrote: "I think it’s just the result of disproportionate political influence held by the wealthy, who are heavily incentivized to maximize working hours."
You're not considering the choices being made by the people actually doing the work. People work for a significant amount of their life because they're paid to do it. There's no council of wealthy people conspiring to achieve this conclusion: they have work that needs to be done, and they're willing to pay for people to do it.
My thesis was just this: while people are exchanging labor for money, people will work. If you introduce a policy where people are given some UBI regardless of employment, they will still work. They want the money. They will buy more televisions, better food, more vacations. If I'm paid my current salary to work for 5 hours a week, I will start interviewing for more jobs. And yes, inflation may soon render the UBI you've introduced to be not so great.
Thanks for clarifying your point. I think the idea you're trying to present is the very real phenomenon that many opt to increase their standard of living rather than reduce their hours. My issue with this point is that I don't think it is the whole story to our long working hours. I think, were there not a strong political interest in maintaining this setup, the populace would use the state to introduce various policies which would make it possible for them to maintain their standard of living on less hours of work. I think that the reason that they can't do this is because, to oversimplify a bit, the levers of political power are disproportionately operated by the wealthy. In other words, I don't think that the long hours are most individuals' choice; I think they're the best choice among bad options, the range of which is deliberately influenced by people incentivized to keep their operating costs low.