For a humorous yet insightful comparison between life in and outside the US I recommend watching Michael Moore's Where to Invade Next.
Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds
141–150 of 405 posts
Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
> it's harder to move from a class to another compared to the US. Not true: social mobility in US is lower than in Europe and Canada.
Source?
First hit on Google:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility
Graph down the bottom.
Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds
#143I find it astonishing how positive Bloomberg tries to spin this: People earn a wider range of incomes in the U.S., so “workers have an incentive to try harder to move up the job ladder because a promotion is worth more,” said Dora Gicheva -The income range in the US is so large that there are lots of people at the bottom end who have to work multiple jobs. How much does that have to do with the longer work hours, Blo…
>I find it astonishing how positive Bloomberg tries to spin this: >People earn a wider range of incomes in the U.S., so “workers have an incentive to try harder to move up the job ladder because a promotion is worth more,” said Dora Gicheva I do not view it as a positive spin. I could take the exact same statement and use it to point out the problem in the US. Almost everyone I know in the US, regardless of their cur…
More often than not it is because a promotion seems to be available, roughly equivalent to a carrot on a stick in front of a donkey.
Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And you can still do that in Europe, no one is stopping you from working more. Well, unions do. But that's a good thing, it prevents a race to burnout.
Does that actually apply to every field? I've only worked briefly as a software developer in Germany and not full time, but I never got the impression that unions would realistically stop anyone in that field from working till midnight. If you are working as a factory worker for example that's of course a totally different story. However, I doubt that people in that kind of job regularly decide to put in a few extra…
If you're in management (defined as having authority to hire/fire IIRC) you're exempt from the law, same if you're self-employed.
For a regular programming job, I believe the the law applies (no more than 10h/day and (8h/weekday average over 6 months). Practically, it only matters if somebody cares about it which only happens systematically on larger companies with a union presence.
But: you're responsible for your employees and they can not waive this right. If you regularly tolerate it, you may run the risk of someone changing his mind after a few years and getting you into trouble, trouble being up to 15000 Euro in penalties and (theoretically) a year in prison if someone was harmed.
Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
And you can still do that in Europe, no one is stopping you from working more. And even better, as you have more free time, you can use it for your own projects.
> And you can still do that in Europe, no one is stopping you from working more. Well, unions do. But that's a good thing, it prevents a race to burnout.
You can have two jobs if you want to. They won't stop you from that.
Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
About 90% of Americans overall have health insurance. Most full-time tech jobs in the US at the companies that would pay more than European salaries will include sufficient health insurance. I'm not sure who you're referring to dying in the streets because of a lack of medical treatment due to financial limitations.
More and more Americans are getting stuck with High Deductible Health Plans, which for all intents don't exist until you fork over several thousand dollars to meet your deductible (excepting a limited range of "preventable care" items that are covered).
As a relatively healthy young adult I'm actually a huge fan of those plans - I'd rather bank the money I would normally spend on an unused premiums into an HSA for later use. I completely recognize this is not ideal for many (most?) people and support single-payer healthcare.
Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Just look at salaries in London. Given the extraordinary cost of living, salaries are pitiful. That certainly wasn't the case when I was working in London about 10 years ago. The going rate for a Java contractor with banking experience was about £600 per day (then $1,100). Have things changed that much in 10 years?
I used to do contracting in the UK in large part because salaries were pitiful compared to contracting rates and when contracting you ended up paying way less tax so got to keep much more of your already higher income. But 600 pounds is now like $750. Assume 4 weeks vacation, public holidays, time between contracts and you should probably assume 200 paid days per year. That's 120k pounds/year or $150k/year. Not great…
My last non-banking contract rate was 750/day in London. It depends a lot based on whether or not you have experience from any "hot" niches, and also depends greatly on whether or not you develop relationships direct with clients or go via an agency.
E.g. direct with clients it's perfectly possible to get contracts at 1k/day+ in London for relatively normal development jobs outside of banking once you have relationships with the right companies and you approach them as a consultancy rather than presenting yourself as an individual developer.
Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
About 90% of Americans overall have health insurance. Most full-time tech jobs in the US at the companies that would pay more than European salaries will include sufficient health insurance. I'm not sure who you're referring to dying in the streets because of a lack of medical treatment due to financial limitations.
More and more Americans are getting stuck with High Deductible Health Plans, which for all intents don't exist until you fork over several thousand dollars to meet your deductible (excepting a limited range of "preventable care" items that are covered).
Yes, but those high deductible plans have significantly lower premiums. They are usually a better deal than the copay plans, where you pay a lot more in premiums even if you never see a doctor.
Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds
#149I would love to live and work in Italy (or any other Mediterranean climate country), but there are simply no [tech] jobs. And what few software jobs there are are not interesting at all and pay very little. I value my time and I am willing to take a pay cut to live in Europe, but the jobs are not simply there. Why can there be no middle ground? For now, the plan is to work hard and retire early. Real estate price cha…
This is true. I'm already working remotely as a freelancer, so I wish it was as easy as just moving to Italy. Unfortunately you can't do that if you're not employed by a company, or have a ton of money to invest.
I just found this startup visa, though: http://italiastartupvisa.mise.gov.it/#direct-application-sec...
I think I might actually look into this.
Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds
#150I've worked in both Europe and the US, and in my opinion, US workers are far worse off for it. You earn more money in the US, you can advance faster, but you have next-to-no vacation time (and even when you do, you're still often expected to be reachable by e-mail), maternity/paternity leave is pitiful, and you have to pay large health insurance premiums, amongst other things. I know that isn't the case for everyone,…
> and you have to pay large health insurance premiums This part still bothers me after 10 years in the US. Health insurance might as well be a tax if you have a family or any ongoing health issues. Hearing people say "I don't support universal health care because my taxes would go up" drives me insane. If the proposition was higher taxes but less overall money spent on healthcare then it's a net gain for you. Of cour…
It's not a naive assumption at all.
The US has some of the highest entrepreneurship rates in the world despite having a pretty weak government provided social safety net.
People would be far more likely to start a company if it didn't mean giving up their existing healthcare benefits and having to pay for it out of pocket.