"Europe chose the route of legal, protected vacations, while we went the other -- no statutory protection and voluntary paid leave. Now we are the only industrialized nation with no minimum paid-leave law. Europeans get four or five weeks by law and can get another couple of weeks by agreement with employers."
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/07/02/nyt.germany/ "No less a person that the minister for labor and economics, Wolfgang Clement, seemed to be suggesting a couple of weeks ago that they were; he told journalists from Stern, the picture weekly, that the Germans, who get 6 weeks off each year, plus another 9 to 12 single-day holidays, ought to work more and vacation less."
>>>>> of course the original article has NONE of the debate going on now in Europe about shorten vacation time and working more since their social programs are in freefall.
And of course, their socialist utopia is in free-fall, and likely to continue as long as Jacque and Gerhardt are in charge. One other thing to consider: where else but the west do the poor have cell phones, color t.v., cars, $100 sneakers?