Do they really, though? As a culture, we've invented so many BS jobs and so many silly corporate culture ways of filling at least 8 hours 5 days a week almost every week a year whether it is useful to us or not out of some puritan-based pseudo-religion that tells us that "work" is good for the "soul" and anyone who doesn't "work" is evil and undeserving of god's/society's love. The 40 hour work week was chosen because it is right near the cutoff of people's exhaustion level, not that it has anything real to do with productivity or usefulness to ourselves and our society.
If we are going to talk about elephants in the room: why can't we find more time to open room for hobbies and personal/family time? Why do we have to work so much? Why are we focused so much on corporate profit and greed? What good are we really doing for ourselves and our society with our current forced work culture?
So I think your question might be reversed: what good is society doing for us, by forcing us to amass wealth because we are scared of being discarded to die early?
The answer, of course, is that society accomplished by way of this blackmail the ability to deliver many plastic electronic consumer goods that would not otherwise be available.
Is this the society we really want to live in where we are all (yes, even Billionaires) three bad months away from homelessness and six bad months away from dying of something preventable?
I assume that "the ability to deliver many plastic electronic consumer goods that would not otherwise be available" is a joke in the face of that existential terror, but I cannot tell any more on sites like HN.