US at Very Bottom in Vacation Days

ABC News ^ | June 25, 2003 | Catherine Valenti - ABC News

[radiohead]

i have a friend from norway. i often send her 'news from norway' that i find on the internet.

the other day, there was an article about norwegians getting their electricity turned off due to failure to pay. someone at one of the electric companies was requesting that people make payment arrangements before going on summer holiday.

well, i thought it took a lot of cujones to take a summer vacation when you can't pay your electric bill and mentioned the same to my friend. turns out that they have mandated time off and that many factories and places of business just close down.

sheesh.

[RGSpincich]

I don't believe that many people, if any, are paid for their weekend offtime.

It's built into their "living wage" per hour. The amount it takes to live in a given location 24/7 then divide that amount by 8/5.

[Jhoffa_]

Nope, like many others I voted for Dubya and was assured that he "really was" a "conservative" and that all this was smoke in mirrors to "fool the rats" as part of his "master plan" to shrink government and fix everything..

Next time though, I am not so sure how I will vote.

[sarcasm]

It's built into their "living wage" per hour. The amount it takes to live in a given location 24/7 then divide that amount by 8/5.

I doubt that very many employers take living costs into consideration when setting wages.Private sector wages are generally determined by supply and demand.

[radiohead]

pleeeese come give a lecture to my liberal classmates. i am really getting tired of being considered the cold-hearted conservative when all i am doing is stating facts.

over time, i have found that people are afraid of freedom. they truly do not want to be in control of their lives. even with all the socialist-style programs we already have, many people i know are just itching for more, so that they don't have to make the tough choices in life.

[Prodigal Son]

pleeeese come give a lecture to my liberal classmates.

LOL! If you can get 'em to scrape up enough to pay me suitable fee, I'll not only lecture them but teach them a bit about capitalism as well (and enjoy myself all at the same time)

;-)

[radiohead]

speaking of capitalism... i gave a presentation on transaction cost economics as a rationale for implementing certain office technologies and got called a capitalist during the q&a.

i swear, the only thing i said was that getting the client to consider some costs, which may be hidden to them, was one way of getting the client to agree to the costs involved in implementing a knowledge management project. you'd have thought i'd asked them to stop school lunches so that greedy corporations could have some IT. : )

obviously, i'm not in a business school, where none of this would have been questioned...

[Prodigal Son]

and got called a capitalist during the q&a.

You should have said "Thank you!" as enthusiastically as you could.

[radiohead]

i did. i smiled my best 'you can't help it if you're young, cute, and stupid' smile and said, "why of course i am. is that news to anybody here?"

what i can't get these kids to understand is that capitalism is what will feed them. i'm a mature student in a doctoral program. we all plan to do research, much of which is funded by the government. well, kiddies, how do you think the govt gets its money?? (trust me, to some of them it's a surprise) and because we deal with technology, we sometimes get direct funding from places like microsoft and intel - excuse me - you're going to rail against capitalism while taking money from some of the biggest capitalists on the planet???

aside from being hypocritcal, i consider it just morally wrong to bite the hand that feeds you. you don't want dirty corporate money, then fund your research yourself, idiots, because one way or another, you got that grant due to capitalism. even the big foundations were funded by the capitalist activities of their founders.

well, as has been said before, a phd doesn't mean you're smart...

[mdmathis6]

Actually, since the American Tax-payers are slaves to the American and European welfare states(we foot Europe's military defence and Japan's), as well as all the tin horn dictator types we send foriegn aid to, the FAT CATS don't dare let us have time off. Some-one has to work to pay the taxes to support all this mess or else the world will fall apart! The American Tax payer....the real mouse that runs the wheel that keeps the world spinning!

[writerb]

having worked all over the caribbean and south pacific as a scuba instructor, I've seen all nationalities on vaca. It is a shame that so many Americans are screwed up in priorities that they work themselves right into the grave. I am an american and agree whole heartedly with the European work ethic that all work and no play makes jack and Jane a couple of uptight, arrogant, and consumer-dazed fools.

[rwfromkansas]

Product possibility curves show decreasing worker productivity over time. Vacations are necessary to keep workers going.

I am studying to be a history teacher. One thing I will enjoy is the long summer break, which makes up for the low salary. However, I do not think I could just sit around for 3 months; I would need to still do something, perhaps help teach summer school. I probably would head to Florida for a couple weeks though. That said, I am considering changing my major to journalism, and journalism is exceedingly stressful with tight deadlines and not much vacation (unless you are a tv anchor). Oh well.

One thing is for sure: workers should get a decent amount of vacation....anything less than a week really does not refresh you for very long after long stints with no breaks. I no that is why a 4 days or so of a long weekend college break really do not help me. I need a full 7 days to be refreshed and ready to work my butt off at classes again. But, the European breaks are just ridiculous for most jobs. Teachers in America just get the extraordinary "break" (and really they have to come in over the summer and also plan lessons for the fall so it is not a true complete break) beause the kids get that break as well.

[rwfromkansas]

oops....I "know" not "no"

[rwfromkansas]

I definitely agree that American workers really work themselves to death. Europeans may have a bit too much fun though.

[mewzilla]

All play and no work is why Europe's economies are in the dumper.