There was a huge war in Italy at the time and Machiavelli wanted to give rulers advice on how to rule their countries more efficiently. His trademark phrase in The Prince was that "the ends justifies the means". Meaning, as long as the result is good for country, what you did to achieve that result doesn't matter.
As a result of the money spent per capita on food in the wake of the Black Death actually increased. “People were able to eat more meat and high-quality bread, which in turn would have improved health,”
The cultural change that resulted from an eight hour workday was that leisure times was "invented" people suddenly had more time as they were able to work for only 8 hours, they could spend other time doing other things.
That's A, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The topic you're asking about is extremely important. I would delve into a bit more research. I can't remember why FDR but I did the test a while back and got an A.
