What's work? Well, I usually think of it as something you do for which you are paid. But in this study of European vs. American work and productivity conflates paid work with unpaid home-based work (of course, we mostly focus on paid home-based work in these parts) to show that Europeans are not as lazy as we like to paint them.

The statistics we usually see focus on jobs that people get paid for, and by that measure Americans do indeed toil much more than Europeans. But that measure overlooks all the cooking, cleaning, lawn mowing, and other home-based labor that most people do.

In the US we spend more time in the market, getting paid, while Europeans spend more time at home. But, not only do they take those four week summer vacations, they are busy producing... flowers, croissants and well polished countertops.

It is true that, if you spend a day a week earning enough money to afford the car and gas and childcare you need to get to work, you could be just as well off if earned 20% less but did not need a car, gas or childcare. There are plenty of other satisfactions to be had from work, of course, expertise, accomplishment, social interactions, etc., that may or may not be met by working at home. 

However, comparing paid work with unpaid work seems weak. In some cases one does serve as a direct substitute for the other (firing your housekeeper and cleaning your own toilets for example). But where do you stop? We each have only 24 hours a day (unless I'm missing something) and you either are making money or not. Some gamers pay people in developing countries to do the scut work to collect trinkets and experience points for online multiplayer games. Should I count the time I spend in World of Warcraft (if I had time to play WoW) collecting the trinkets myself as equivalent to the hours someone else spends digging ditches? Or do I add a point to the lazy column for me?

I know which way my wife will score it.