All very interesting theories, but the US isn't an amazingly hard working nation by global standards.
Who knew that Mexicans work 500 hours a year more than the Japanese?
I wonder if the data is being skewed somehow, perhaps by different cultural norms around women working, or something like that?
If anyone can shed any light on this it would be really interesting.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#OECD_ranking