I think all our real needs with respect to food, clothing, and shelter can be fulfilled without employing much of the work force. It's why there is so much junk produced along with plenty of wasted time.
Yup, it's either your time or your money. This has been discussed here before I believe:
Economics: Whatever happened to Keynes' 15-hour working week? asks Larry Elliott | Business | The Guardian
"Back in 1930, Keynes predicted that the working week would be drastically cut, to perhaps 15 hours a week, with people choosing to have far more leisure as their material needs were satisfied."
Some, especially on here, have embraced a simpler/cheaper life to enjoy life, but most have overwhelmingly voted for more work/money/stuff.
But from a theoretical standpoint, if everyone worked 15 hour weeks, there would be enough work to go around, though the standard of living would be lower. So those that want a higher SOL would work longer to earn more money, driving prices up in the process. So everyone else would now have to work longer to maintain the same SOL they had before. But then others would work even harder to get a better SOL, so more hours and then....
Unfortunately this is the nature of the beast until the human population declines appreciably. The only reason 40 hours is now the norm is because it's enshrined in law. And of course many "exempt" employees generally work more than the norm.
The only way to get out of the whole mess is to work 168 hrs a week, earn a Boeing 747-load of money, quit, live off the earnings, and die a day later of pure exhaustion.
Or work, save, invest, LBYM, and retire a few decades later, but that's just boring and take too long.