Posted on 08/22/2004 11:41:54 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
A number of nations — such as Hong Kong, Israel, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Germany and Taiwan — do require paid vacation time. There's a growing movement of people advocating "simplified lifestyles" to try to get the United States more in line with the rest of the world.
"We're sacrificing on the altar of productivity and gross domestic product all sorts of values: health, where we're not doing well in this area, longevity, physical fitness and obesity — all sorts of factors that rank the United States in last place among industrialized countries," said John de Graaf, the Seattle-based national coordinator for the Take Back Your Time Campaign and editor of the book Take Back Your Time.
The loss of free time
This election year, de Graaf is hoping to capture the eyes and ears of politicians who have heard recently from Americans, particularly working women, that the most important issue in their lives is the loss of free time.
De Graaf has a legislative agenda that includes providing paid days off on election days, requiring paid family leave time, creating a 48-hour maximum workweek and enacting three weeks of minimum annual paid leave.
"We don't necessarily expect them to agree with us," de Graaf said. "There are some politicians who are sympathetic, like Ted Kennedy and Lynn Woolsey. At this point, though, they can't get much out of committee."
Take Back Your Time Day
De Graaf last year organized Take Back Your Time Day on Oct. 24 and is planning for a similar event on the same day this year, a week and a half before Election Day.
"You cannot have good family lives without people having time to spend together," de Graaf argued. "You cannot have the community participating without the time. You cannot have good civic participation if people don't have time to read. All the social problems that we have are exacerbated by time pressure."
That may be the case, said Trinity University economist Barry Hirsch, but for the most part, we chose to not make the time to do these things.
"We're choosing to do it. We're doing it to ourselves," Hirsch said.
"I have some sympathy with groups that are saying you don't have to do this and are rebelling against consumerism. If people want to argue that, fine, but given that we feel that people ought to choose what to do for themselves, they are choosing this.
"If you're mandating more days off, then effectively that's increasing the wage or cost of hiring a worker for the same amount of time you get output," he said. "That basically is like a wage increase at a cost to an employer."
And eventually those higher costs will get passed down, he said.
"It leads to lower wages, no question about that, for everybody," Hirsch said. "The question is: Do we value those benefits as much as we would the dollars of earnings? In that sense, with paid parental leave the question is to what extent do we want to promote children. Countries that want to increase birth rates tend to have policies that are more parent-friendly."
According to a Harvard School of Public Health survey, 163 nations offer guaranteed paid parental leave for women, while the United States does not; 45 nations offer fathers paid parental leave; and 98 countries require employers to give workers at least one full day off of work during the week.
In the United States, while paid vacation days are not required by law, 80 percent of employers do offer them, and 77 percent offer paid holidays.
Eight paid holidays
On average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers were entitled to eight paid holidays.
After three years of work, most American workers — 81 percent — were entitled to 10 days of paid vacation days.
According to the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, nations such as Hungary, Spain, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Sweden and Saudi Arabia mandate at least two weeks of paid vacation days for all workers.
While nations like Germany and France are considering changing their policies in order to increase their competitive position in the global marketplace, de Graaf doubts that any substantive change to vacation policies will take place.
"We're not trying to present Europe as some sort of Utopia," de Graaf said. "We're just saying, the vast majority of the world understands that people need time to live their lives other than just living for their money."
Paid vacations come out of their salary or in place of hiring other employees.
Maybe the government could follow George W. Bush's lead and quit taxing us so heavily.
That would LEAVE more of our own money in our pockets and the problem would be solved.
I'll never understand Leftists. When other nations do stuff that's different from us, we're supposed to "respect" and "appreciate" the "cultural diversity." ...but when we Americans do things differently than the rest of the world, we're supposed to "get in line."
Screw that. Anyone who doesn't like how things work in the United States of America is free to depart for their socialist nirvana of choice.
Or maybe they could follow George W. Bush's lead and stop spending so heavily. Oh wait..., never mind. I know, they could veto stupid legislation. Oh wait..., never mind.
You would keep your money in your pocket and let terrorists come knocking on your door? I'm sure they'll leave your money in your pocket while they're sawing off your head, poisoning your drinking water, blowing up your home......
Personally, I will spend a few tax dollars (with interest) to protect the homeland and keep the fighting over there.
Most of the spending is not going to fight terrorism (The federal budget is about $500 billion more per year. The entire military budget is about $400 billion.) and it still doesn't account for the "no veto" policy. Any such policy is bound to lead to fiscal waste. GWB's big spending, big government policies were already in place before 9/11 and even go back to his days when he was governor of Texas.
Ronald Reagan zeroed in on our enemies to keep our country protected and to defeat them. He traded off on things to achieve that - that's how politics works.
So, let me ask you, how much would we have paid if we hadn't defeated the Soviets?
Reagan's spending increases went purely to the military and he gave us historiic results. I hope the terror war ends the same way. I support GWB's foreign policies, but his spending indulgence and lack of vetoes has nothing to do with that.
No my dear poster, you are wrong.
Reagan signed the budgets and they were not just filled with extra spending for the military and national defense, he had to give the LIBERALS things that they wanted to beat back the Soviets.
I was a good trade-off. That's what you have to do as Commander in Chief to protect and defend your country.
It was.........
My Grandfather had to travel 3 hours TO work everyday .. and this was back when not everyone owned cars
Look at the waistlines!!
They should get off the couch and go out and play ball with their kids.
That too! :-)
That's it! ... they don't
They think they have to sign their kids up for every damn thing possible
Here's a thought .. stop spending so much time dropping them somewhere and start spending time WITH THEM
I was a good trade-off. That's what you have to do as Commander in Chief to protect and defend your country.
And Reagan made cut backs in other areas to pay for those concessions. Outside of military spending, the net increase in other spending was virtually zero. Plus Reagan used the veto. Reagan didn't have a secret strategery. He stood for what was right and stated it at the bully pulpit. He wasn't afraid to expose the bad ideas of the Democrats for fear of upsetting the "new tone in Washington.".
But people,AVERAGE PEOPLE,without college degrees,used to read books (and I mean the classics and philosophy and what would now be called "hard" books,of all kinds),they played instruments,had family sing-a-longs as some played,went (gasp) outside and played together,took walks,and actually talked with each other.
So Moonman62, we both agree that Ronald Reagan was a great president.
Who is your candidate in this election?
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