in the u.s., full-time work is typically defined as year-round work of 40 hours per week, not including mandatory but unpaid lunch breaks, with two weeks of vacation. however, this is a relatively recent development in american history, going back only to the 1940s with the creation of social welfare programs such as social security; for most of world history, people worked far fewer hours than americans do today, and globally, contemporary americans work far more hours than their peers in other nations. the fact that most americans consider non-disabled people 23–65 who do not work these hours to be lazy is a sign of
