Posted on 01/18/2022 6:35:36 AM PST by NOBO2012
Young people have all the answers; if you suggest they start their own business, they respond that Zuckerberg/Bezos/Gates have rigged the game against them.
Comparisons to Europeans are not apples-to-apples; many workers in Europe are basically given job protections that only unionized workers in the US get (so using your vacation is much easier). Countries there have outlawed overtime and the use of temps, and it really doesn’t work well for job seekers - unemployment is high, especially for young people.
Western Europeans have a longer history of 1%ers screwing little people (that is why they’ve had much more political violence than us - our government took steps to head that off, though McKinley was killed by an anarchist). The governments are set up to remove all risk from peoples’ lives, and they receive a corresponding low-risk return (for many years, the difference in opportunity/mobility between Europe and the US was stark, though that is disappearing now as WE become more socialist/nanny-state). Americans would enjoy more benefits if we were all tenured teachers, but we aren’t.
Companies know the difference, and want to replace as many human workers as possible with “robots”. If they can’t automate a process, they’ll either ship the work to, or import into this country, foreign “human robots” who have far less rights than us. Look at the “996” culture in Red China (work 9 to 9, 6 days per week); it isn’t sustainable.
In the meantime I have fast food workers indignantly pointing me to order at the kiosk by the counter that replaced the two other co-workers who used to be on his side of the counter...
You inadvertently stressed my point with the phrase:
many workers in Europe are basically given job protections that only unionized workers in the US get (so using your vacation is much easier)
Vacations and vacation time are mandated by law, yet employers can punish you for using yours?
THAT IS THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM
I understand why Europeans have the view they have; their companies have a hard time firing them. The companies know it, too; they hire VERY slowly (so you end up with higher unemployment). Places in the US that try to set up a European model (cities, states) end up with the worst unemployment here as well.
Yet their productivity is close to or even exceeds North America’s, and employee satisfaction is far higher.
We have a problem.
North of a certain line Europe’s productivity may be close to North America’s productivity (also north of a certain line), but as a whole Europe isn’t viewed as very competitive in the global economy. They have a lot of safeguards in place for their workers, but it comes at a price (high cost of living first and foremost).
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