Are Americans Overworked?

This debate comes up every summer as people see their neighbors leave for exotic places and suffer a severe case of Vacation Envy.

On the one hand, Americans seem to have honed the fine art of "busy-ness"--climbing on the treadmill of life and going and going and believing they're going somewhere. Are they really working so much because they have to or because they want to?

On the other hand, some Americans work with a panic level now, due to downsizings and market instability. Even though the economy is great, people don't want to be looking for a job. They feel that working harder or at least longer, separates them from the average workers.

Is it possible that the only meaning lots of people have in life is work?