Lets see, who should we blame this time? Iran supported evil terrorist fundamentalists, Chinese cheap outsourcing, or those evil Mexican migrants stealing our jobs? So hard to choose;((

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Conservatives will argue that we have a better economy. But they will fail to mention that our economy has been on a rage for the last hundred years and we are the birth of some the greatest of innovations. They will also fail to mention that we are the most unhealthy and probably the most individually depressed of the western nations.
But the big kicker is that even though the nation is taking less vacation time, our nations hardest workers are making less than they were five years ago.
That should be a hard hitting point in the campaigns.

See my posts under "2006 Senate Elections Report"

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What the Reagan revolution did and what the Bushie addendum did was make us forget how to have a real democracy and how to live in a decent life style. It's retrogression written with a big R =Republican pen.

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This European would like to point out he's entitled to 20 days holiday a year +including+ bank holidays. Christmas, New Year, they all come out of my measly holiday allowance.

Don't believe everything you read!

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I left North America long ago because I got fed up with this work-like-a-slave-to-the-grave attitude, with no corresponding payback to the employee. I now work and live in Europe and Asia, and make more money, have more benefits, and take bags of holiday time. In the past ten years, I have travelled all around the world and had amazing adventures.

Something I discovered was this: hanging around North Americans has a corrosive influence on you and your life. Their pathetic nerosis affect your thinking. The solutions to most work related problems require creative solutions and the time to think about them. Yet, if you hang around a bunch of North American stress cases, you will never get the time or psychic peace to see your problems clearly.

I say abandon North America. Walk away from it. Take the money you have saved and get an air ticket. Leave. Americans always do well when they start businesses in other countries. Pick a country you like, and move there.

When you are on your deathbed, what will matter won't be your dutiful appearances at work at 9 am, it won't be all the stupid meetings you attended, it won't be your 'employee of the month' certificate, or your puffed up job title: it will be the experiences you will have had in life, the people you will have loved, the challenges you will have met, the shit that you disturbed, the amazing sex, and the lives you will have changed for the better (not vaporised in warfare like the typical American wants to do).

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IMO this is a manifestation of the protestant work ethic married to the cult of consumerism.
Bob Reichenbach
Director, The Lincoln Initiative

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After twelve years of self-employment, I have recently become an employee again. My employer allows me to accrue up to 15 days paid time off for the first two years, increases to 20 after three and continues to increase with length of service. You can bet your bottom dollar that I will be using at least 10 of those days for travel and recreation, and will keep a few banked for those days when I really do get sick.

Before I accepted this position, I told them that I already had a trip in the works; I took the time off unpaid. It's more important for me to have the mental break than it is to bring home the bucks.

My spouse also changed jobs and in negotiating his package, he was able to get 120 hours vacation AND 120 hours sick pay, in addition to the paid holidays. You can be sure that he will be using each and every one of those vacation days; unlike his past where he never used the PTO to which he was entitled. And if it means I take a week off unpaid every year - IT IS WORTH IT!

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Corporate employers and small businesses in america are like those vagabond Mexican outlaws in the Humphrey Bogart movie called "The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre" in which the famous line went, in paraphrase, "Vacations? Vacations? You don't need no stinking vacations."

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In the old times the author enthusiastically remembers, almost all workers were emplyed directly by companies. In the modern world, more and more people at all levels are employed by contract agencies and are contracted out to companies.

Contract work pays well, but of course, the little perks which used to come with employment, like health insurance, paid holidays, paid vacation, retirement pensions and sick pay, have all become things of the past.

This situation is perfect for companies, they now have lower overheads, and if they want to reduce their work force, they only need give a contractor notice to leave at the end of the hour.

Why do we contract? We have to eat and pay for somewhere to live. I contract, and I did take 2 weeks unpaid leave in the summer to escape to Europe. I am lucky enough to have a boss who appreciates me enough to allow me to do this.

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According to a New York Times article, British workers get more than 50% more paid holiday per year than Americans, while the French and Italians get almost twice what the Americans get. The average American's response is neither admiration nor envy, but rather a kind of sick pride in their own wretchedness, combined with righteous contempt for their European worker counterparts, whom most Americans see as morally degenerate precisely because they have more leisure time, more job security, health benefits and other advantages.

Now, I looked throught he New York Times article, and it makes no mention of Americans having contempt for "morally degenerate" Europeans. I find it hard to believe that this is how most Americans truly see Europeans. Where did this tidbit come from?

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Of course, here we have the principle of American world-domination: a super power with its super corporations will order the entire world according to its needs. Don't you recognize the name of this idea? Its the central doctrine of fascism., now American not European.

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I would like to point out that work overload leads to stress, time crunches, and lack of sleep, all which have health consequences. Lack of sleep and stress have been implicated in heart disease, diabetes, and can even lead to weight gain. Funny, in all the antiobesity hysteria, and how we are the fattest nation in the world, we never hear about more leisure time as one solution. If we get heart disease and kill ourselves making some corporation a buck, that is perfectly o.k. But God forbid we kill ourselves in a way that gets us any pleasure along the way!

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How many millions of times have we been scolded about red meat, an extra mojito, chocolate desserts, and cigarettes? But you don't here any chastising business for half hour lunches that practically require fast food, sixty hour weeks that leave little time for exercise, the stress of constant "at will" employment, and the far too frequent weekends we are called in to work? I say we put warning labels on want ads.

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Gee those horrid Europeans . They have a month off and Government Provided Health Insurance and yet are still kicking our butt economically . Check out the Euro vrs the
dollar . I was in Europe just aftrer the Iraq Invasion and the Euro and dollar were roughly equal give or take a nickel or so . When I went back last year the Euro cost $1.30.

In fact one of the supposed REAL reasons for the Iraq Invasion was the idea that they would price their Oil in Euros
rather than dollars .

As a closing point let us not forget recent studies that point out there is MORE class Mobility in Europe than here in the US .

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In most EU countries you get 24 or 26 working days off from first year of employment, with incremental increases every so many years. Alarmingly, a growing number of EU workers no longer take the full "month" off, whether because they can't afford to go away for that long or work pressures won't allow them to be away that long. Office staff, esp. lower management & up, are becoming more 'American' in this way as if taking time off is something to feel guilty about. Worse, even when away, many never fully clock out of work and keep checking email etc. When did taking a break become something shameful? If anything, companies should encourage it: you're more productive and creative when rested than you are when you're burned out.

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CEOs can be in your workers' faces because they no longer fear the loss of every thing to Communism. When they were still afraid they wanted capitolism to look better than communism hence vacations, worker benefits. Now aristocracy and tax-farming are their true style.

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After reading this article, I got the impression that the author considers workaholic Americans to be at the root of this issue, as well as many of those that commented. As someone who struggles to make ends meet, I find this totally insulting. I think it would be wonderful to take a vacation - since I've almost forgotten what the hell that is!

Perhaps when considering those with 6 - digit incomes who refuse to take time off for fear of not being able to afford the new Hummer they just bought, this might be true. However, anyone that is struggling financially, or knows people that are, you know that the lack of vacation time has more to do with living paycheck to paycheck - trying to keep food on the table, a roof over their heads, and their old car running (forget healthcare for themselves or their children).

The reason my family hasn't had a vacation in several years is because we can't afford it - not because we're greedy, self-centered workaholics. Even if we could afford to take time off (which we can't), the concept of being able to actually go anywhere or do anything - and still keep the bills paid while we're gone - is what some would call a "pipe dream".

Judging millions of people, assuming they'd rather work all the time and get more money, as opposed to taking a few weeks off a year doesn't have the ring of truth with regards to most of the people I know. Did it ever occur to anyone that if many people were to take time off it would mean the loss of their homes, the shutting off of their utilities, or surviving on top ramen and peanut butter sandwiches? No. It must be that we're workaholics. And we hate Europeans for their leisure time (like the terrorists hate us for our freedom). Maybe some are like this, but I think that the majority of working men and women simply can't afford to take time off.

I can count on one hand how may people I know that are offered paid vacation time through their jobs. The only one that actually uses it is single with no kids, no house payment, and can actually afford to take the time off. As many people are aware (though they may not feel the effects personally), the number of those living in poverty is on the rise, the lower class is growing, while the middle class is dwindling away - and CEOs are living better than ever. It's not the workers....it's the economy, stupid!

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The indoctrination of the American worker begins in grade school. From a very early age here, kids learn to leave for "work" in the dark hours of morning, endure long transport times, spend 7 hours working with only a 25 minute break for lunch and perhaps short recess. By middle school, recess is gone. After-school hours are cluttered with sport and music lessons, followed by 2+ hours of homework, with a rushed meal in between. High schoolers often squeeze in a part-time job plus the 25 hours per year of "volunteer" work that is expected of them in order to make their college application competitive. They are told from the time they enter middle school, that if they do not take advanced courses, they will not be able to compete for those coveted positions at university. By the time they enter the workforce, they are fully trained for overachieving. To vacation is to lose your competitive edge...the incidental learning in an American education.

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"...40% of Americans had no plans to take any sort of summer vacation this year -- "

Hm, well that's only PART of the year. Personally we never take vacations in the summer because the summer is the nicest time of year here! So I suppose they would count me in that statistic, although we take a vacation EVERY winter.

A better statistic would be how many people were planning on taking a vacation anytime during the year.

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I left America 6 years ago to be with my Dutch wife in Amsterdam and I haven't regretted it. I have what you could consider a decent-paying job in the IT sector and as far as holidays are concerned, let's see: for example, this year I went to the States with my wife and daughter for 3 weeks back in May, I went to Paris with a friend for a week in July, I just went to Germany last August for a week with the wife and daughter and I still have 2 full weeks left which I intend to take around Christmas. All paid holidays. And we had a couple of little weekend getaways to Belgium where we have some friends.
In the past 5 years, I've been all around Western Europe (except Switzerland) and bear in mind we don't spend all our money on holidays: we have a mortgage and a decent savings account (we go out to dinner at least once a month).
I enjoy visiting family and friends back in the States but moving back? Nee (as they say in dutch)... I do miss the Florida sunshine though...

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Voluntary and mandatory overtime. I am amazed to see how many of my coworkers toil on Saturdays and Sundays, sometimes both, whether ordered to or not. The reasons are multiple: perverted Puritanism, gross indebtedness, the ever-appealing bandwagon, and the lack of wholesome lives, to identify a few.

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one DA in Colorado tough on crime.....Below is a link to the a Russian newspaper go to bottom and click 'Sweet Pea Owners "we didn't want this."

Six months in jail for dumpster theft. Everyone wants the US good life!!!!!!

http://lenta.ru/news/2006/09/05/trash/

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Now that it's clear how overworked and oppressed we are, what next? For the majority of us it will be more of the same: cowering in the corner like the true chickenshits we are, desperately afraid to do with less or accept a job that may give the appearance that we are less than status driven, materialistic, societally warped and depressed gluttens for punishment.

I absolutely love articles like this wherein we are told how miserable we are (which we are I agree) only to post a menacing paragraph or two threatening to impeach Bush, boycott corporate America or initiate some other "action" that we have absolutely no intention of carrying out. There are still countries on earth where people take to the streets with fire and conviction - we are not one of those countries. Unfortunately the US has not fallen far enough to motivate us to get off our lazy, fat asses and actually do something. I wonder how many of us have made the connection between being overworked and greatly increased rates of diabetes, heart disease and depression? From the looks of it, I sincerely doubt many have. Let's face it - the US is in terminal decline and we have gotten exactly what we deserve . . .

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Are americans afraid to LIVE? It seems so to me.
Life is not only about working.

Oh, and yet again it is so easy to blame and point fingers at others. The Europeans.
Look at yourself. Take responsibility for your own life, for your own actions.

I work parttime, 4 days a week, and still get 22.4 vacationsdays a year (I get some bonusdays for working at the company for a number of years).

Vacation, days off...you don't know what you're missing.
No wonder you're blazingly mad as a society....

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There we go Mark. Life on the plantation Abe Lincoln created with violence George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld have yet to acheive, So FAR. Two more years to declare war on Syria and Iran. When all states were subdued and federalized, sovereignty passed to the servant class. Citizens and states became subservient and the struggle to lower stress and find time is an intended lifestyle courtesy of the plantation owners and their servants paid with your taxes and promisory notes. We remain conquered captives, slaving away on the plantation because it never occurs to the corporate educated pseudo citizen to reclaim individual sovereignty and take control of the servant class. Our determination can overcome the inertia of pacifism in all things and peace at all costs. Send me a message from just another view dot com.

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I thought I was entitled to a week's paid vacation after one year at my current job.

The year passed, and I got an extra paycheck. I went to human resources (I'd rather visit a gynocologist) and asked when I could take my week off. I was informed that I was never guaranteed a week off, just a week of extra pay.

Last year, I found myself in a similar situation and quit a job so I could spend a single week in Europe. I haven't had more than a weekend off since.

My anxiety had reached a new high and I'm chronically depressed. Unlike most Americans, I cannot comfort myself with TV, fast food, or shopping at Wal-Mart.

I want out.

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As another poster commented, I'd attribute this "live to work" quality with a thoroughly protestant ethic, an ethic which states that life should be spent without pleasure, always struggling (to be "perfect"), and the prize ("heaven") comes at the end. Unfortunately, this country was settled by people who had this mentality and it's part of the reason things are the way they are.

Another reason has to do with the fundamentally capitalist structure of the US, a capitalist structure which only in the least amount possible, values the life of its workers. Europe had the advantage of not being repulsed by that thing called "socialism" (dirty word to Americans) and of the Marshall Plan, where we basically implemented policies that our own plutocratic congress, senate, house, etc. were too callous to give a try.

As an aside, I recently took a part-time job as an hourly employee for a corporation and was shocked (!) to hear a fellow employee tell me "you get a half and hour for each 8 hr shift you work." As someone used to taking an hour and a half for lunch (I work for myself f/t), I in no way understood how that measly 30min could accomadate me getting in my car, going somewhere, sitting to eat/talk, and coming back and getting re-acclimated to work. C'est la vie dans les etats-unis! Can you say "Merde!"?

Just as the boss-class wasn't willingly giving an 8hr day (which we workers had to agitate for), so they'll never give any more than they have to. Consequently, workers will be worked to death because employers know that one, most Americans don't fathom that this isn't "natural," and two, because there's always someone else (sometimes a migrant worker, sometimes someone who's desperate, it varies of course) who'll do the job.

I envy Europe, but if you're paying attention you'll notice that we know live in a globalized world where nations are competing with each other. In order for the EU to remain "competitive," it's going to have to give it's workers more of the shit which means less benefits and opportunities for relaxation (this has already begun and the problem is, as it is in the US, in certain jobs magnified in Europe by migrant workers who though not soley to blame don't help the situation for ALL workers). What to do???

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strong UNIONS!!!!!

Without workers united, corporate America rules the world. Every worker in the US should be in a union. Every worker in the WORLD should be in a union.

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As an American expat living and working in Europe I can clearly see how the corporations are slowly and subtly putting pressure on the european governments through the EU to cut down on holidays and other workers' benefits that we've been enjoying here on the Old Continent.
It's always the same b.s. excuse: because of globalization we have to work harder to compete with countries like China or India (and now the former Eastern European block). I suspect it's part of a deliberate plan by the corporate/financial elite in the US/UK to progressively bring Europe down to the level of America... In other words to bring this brutal, dog-eat-dog, american capitalist model to "those socialist european societies". I never miss a chance to warn my fellow european workers about that. Beware! There is a global plan being unfolded (at least the French seem determined to resist it)! It's not just another conspiracy theory...

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The New York Times article on the vanishing vacation told one particularly grotesque story about American workers' own refusal to take vacations even when their companies offer it to them.

My best friend is a sales manager and he fits this profile to a T. He accrues vacation time and it goes unused, and furthermore, he works every day of the week, though he's the only one to do so and it isn't required. He is convinced that if he doesn't do the work, everything will fall apart.

And you know what? He may be right. That's because companies know they can get away with doing less, hiring fewer people, or at lower rates, becuase they know their workers will fill those gaps and keep things going. It's intentional, and abusive, because people like my friend who burn the candle at both ends will burn themselves out. And once they are burned out, they will be discarded for the next guy who the companies will abuse in much the same way.

Then, the burnout is screwed. He'll be seen as damaged goods in that industry, and/or he'll be unable to muster the drive needed for that kind of work in the future.

But I think it's a mistake to think that the reason this is happeneing is because there's somthing wrong with American workers' psyche. Gotta dig deeper than that. Blaming this on ourselves is just what these corporate types would like. This an endemic, institutional problem with American business. We are supposedly a Christian nation, but morality is utterly absent in our corporate culture. Our suppsoedly moral overlords use workers like cattle, and send them to the slaughter when they are all used up.

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for being #1, the richest, the most powerful society on the planet. Guess who is paying that price? Certainly not the political/financial elite... Wake up America!

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Wasn´t Bush on his usual summer vacation when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and refused to cut it short even while there were thousands of people there in and under water literally?

And you guys voted him in to run a second term? And Cheney? And Rumsfeld?

Wow, you guys are real suckers for corporate America aren´t you?

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Wasn´t Bush on his usual summer vacation when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and refused to cut it short even while there were thousands of people there in and under water literally?

And you guys voted him in to run a second term? And Cheney? And Rumsfeld?

Wow, you guys are real suckers for corporate America aren´t you?

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On top of that some of you will soon be out of jobs even if you are a employee or contractor because in that work environment the job is not done.

I am working for a company in Canada who is paying full benefits, we are unionized and we have only two subcontractor companies working for us. Now those two companies are from USA and they charge high price for there IT service contract. Few years back my company accept to pay those high prices because the job was done but now the prices increase for those contracts but the job is not done, in fact we had to hire two people to work with them to make sure the job we pay for is done. One of those company have overwork no vacation stress worker and the other one put out of work their employees and hired them as contractor. For the 2 cases since they don’t treat their workers good the job is not done right and now they specialized themselves on how to give reasons for the job not done. For one of the two contract the death sentence is already there when the day the contract is finish you can kiss your job goodbye and the other one is on death row. To replace those contract my company will hire full paid benefit workers to do the job because in the last 6 years they have done so with other contractors and the cost are 40% down and profit 20% up.

When I say full benefit I mean very good pay, 37.5 hours a week, over the 37.5 hours you are paid 150% of your salary for every hours of overtime and 200% if you have to work on weekend, 2 weeks vacation the first year and going up every year (I have 6 weeks of paid vacation after 19 years of service), 10 days of sick paid leave every year, 2 fully paid days for personal reason, 20 days fully paid holidays, life insurance paid 50% by my company, health insurance that cover everything that is not paid by the government like glasses, dentist and medicine, salary insurance who pay my salary if I am sick over the 10 days, cell phone, VoIP phone and 10 Mb internet access + cable at home free. On top of that I have a expense account to pay for meals, hotels and everything when I have to go out of town and since I work for a high tech company with need some formation and courses to stay on top and the company is paying for everything and the courses are done on working hours not at night or on weekend.

Can you believe that even if they pay those benefit I don’t hear shareholder complain because with are making money and a lot of it, profit up 20% and cost down 40% on the last 5 years.

Your corporate culture is bs I work for a company who make good profit by treating his employees good so we are proud of our company and every minute we work is to make that company better and more profitable.

On top of that last year when I took my 6 weeks of vacation in a row to make a trip in Asia my boss told me to enjoy my vacation because he said that I earn every minutes of because of my good work.

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In the 1990s harvard economist Juliette Schor wrote the first real treatise on this topic called, "The Overworked American" in which she noted the end of the traditional post-New Deal forty hour work week and the disappearance of things like the weekend and now the great American annual vacation. Obviously the 35% rise in the average per capita number of hours worked (55 vs 40 average weekly hours) in America is indicative of the intensification of work in the era of globalization. Employment drops along with labor standards as the state invites employers to squeeze as much out of existing employed staff as possible while holding the line on wages despite rising productivity. As Karl Marx would put it, the rate of exploitation is rising by leaps and bounds! Costs can further be cut by restructuring work through casualization or outsourcing certain tasks altogether. The newly concentrated wealth that formerly contributed to a growing middle class through domestic consumption (and wealth creation) now bloats the growing financial markets where it finds its way abroad to where concentrated direct investment helps create a new global division of labor which further concentrates wealth. It also serves niche markets that are dominated by the rich. This is how this strategy fits into the strategy of globalization. The working and middle classes are now told to rely on those same financial markets for what used to be guaranteed retirement benefits. A vicious cycle developes by which people must work harder to save enough to make the new privatized accounts pay off by retirement. This only increases the rate of exploitation. Globalization and financialization go hand in hand!

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In the 1960s I took a 9 week(paid) vacation to Europe (9 countries) with two girlfriends, both teachers who had the summer off. The TOTAL cost of this trip was $1,300. This included round trip air fare from home, air travel from country to country, interesting places to stay (a Regency row house, in London, a Renaissance palace in Florence, some first class hotels, etc), took incountry tours of Greece, Spain and France, ate wonderful meals, went to the theatre every evening, did immense amounts of sighseeing- even bought souvenirs!

Several years later, we took a 10 day charter trip to the Canary Islands- total cost $350. This included round trip air fare from home, flights to the three main islands as well as one to North Africa, a luxury hotel (with swimming pool and all the works), three gourmet meals a day, including wine, all sighseeing costs- and souvenirs!

Can't do that today. Arthur Frommer's books talked about "Europe on $5.00 a day". Now you would be lucky to get away with $100 a day. Even traveling by car to a national park is expensive. Now you are being nickled and dimed at the parks for much less service (thanks to government cut backs) and the increased cost in gasoline. If you have a family, and can support this on one paycheck, you are indeed fortunate. There are so many required expenses now that didn't exist then, and they all take chunks out of one's income. So how can anyone think of taking a vacation away from home these days when there are so many demands on the money being earned.

So glad I went when I did. Couldn't do the same today. Did you ever check the price of a 2 week trip to Europe now?

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3 months off a year AND you make a difference in kids' lives and fill much needed positions....what more could you want?

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1. anti-Depression Meds/ADHD drugs
2. Anti-acids
3. Sleep Aids/Stay Awake Pills/Diet Aids

Nuf said

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Could be working for some big multinational in China, working long hours, in unhealthy conditions, for shit wages, living in on-site dormitory style housing. People from the poorer countries would laugh at our problems with vacation and long hours.

I agree though that our culture of work work work, little time off is toxic as hell.

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I do think it's time to demythify the common belief that Europeans enjoy 8 weeks of vacation. No country could make its economy work with that kind of set-up. In France, which I know the best since I have been living here for 30 years, we have five weeks of vacation. In no country do you add in Christmas, Easter, national holidays, etc. The state of things in the U.S. is scandalous, the job insecurity which is, alas, also spreading to Europe, is scandalous, but I do wish Americans would stop this harping on the 8 weeks of vacaction myth.
Siv O'Neall, France

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1. Put vegetables and tofu in your ramen.

2. Don't spend money on electronics when a simple X-Box or PS2 will suffice.

3. Put all your electronics and non-DC appliances on surge protectors. Switch them all off before you leave for work.

4. Your kid is more likely to get into a university by transferring 30 community-college level credits than by acing the SAT. That's because c.c. credits equal an academic career.

4b: If you really, really, REALLY want them to graduate, now's the time to teach them how to read and write. Plagiarism kills. Math and science tutors are easy to find.

5. New cars are like old cars: you rarely get your money's worth with them. Why pay more?

Voila! You'll find you suddenly have a bit more cash at the end of every paycheck to feed your family with.

Now do something productive and go join a union.

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Well, It looks as though we can pretty much say good-bye to the travel part........I'm sorry, how many Americans did you say hold a US passport? Great, we are going from stupid, fear of the unknown, and ignorance to more stupid, more fearful of the unknown and more ignorant. America: the new 2nd world!!!!!!

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