Any gains are generally directed towards chasing status. Rather than being allocated towards leisure activities, they end up being used to push up property prices and the profits of luxury goods companies.

I guess this might be the case in America but seriously? Economic gains up here in Canada tend to either go into reinvestment or leisure since life is your thing and having a fancier car than your neighbor is silly. I think that due to limits on the supply of leisure goods you will find that your second sentence is accurate - but I think that's due to the increased demand of leisure, not due to the increased demand of status (outside of a small portion of the population).

No. Housing prices are even higher in Canada than the US, despite lower wages. Canadians are funneling almost every dollar into housing.

This is sad but I feel probably true in some sense.

Leisure itself is a marker of status.

If only... I think generally the people who have achieved the means to enjoy leisure time are the people who are driven by ambition to keep attaining higher status. It takes someone with the ability to step back and assess what's important in life.

the link proposed is not not clear to me. Wouldn’t requiring people retire later keep them in jobs near the end of their career, giving them even more money to “push up prices”?