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Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

bloomberg.com

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Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#221

Post by christophilus »

adwn wrote: post #87
ajmurmann wrote: post #32

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 -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 Reminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNzXze5Yza8

Wow. That pretty much sums the problem up, right there. Talk about spin.

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#222

Post by digikata »

RandomName2020 wrote: post #184
refurb wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That might be true in the aggregate, but I imagine it's not for specific groups. Why else would so many people move to the US for job opportunities?

1. Because US is big. 2. Because it is more welcoming for immigrants. 3. Because of broken H1B system.

Because it had great (and I mean multi-generational enduring American Dream great) PR from after WWII thru at least the late 60's.

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#223

Post by salmon30salmon »

patrickk wrote: post #186
jypepin wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a very light analysis from me, so might not be fully true, but I live in the US, now in Europe, and in Canada before that. You could also say Canada is kind of in the middle. Well, maybe correlation doesn't imply causation in that case but here is what I can see: - US > Canada > Europe in terms of opportunities, be it starting salary, end-of-career salaries, and everything in the middle such as promotions, perso…

> When you call cust sup in Europe, the service is way worst. This varies dramatically within Europe. From personal experience, customer service is decent, polite and timely in the UK and Ireland, and generally awful in Germany. It's difficult to generalise across a continent with 700mil+ people (500+ mil in the EU), with enormous cultural variations and expectations of good service (much greater variations than in t…

There is a great variation in the United States. A country of 300 million people, where each state has a unique culture and identity. For some reason, "American" is often generalized to be a caricature that I, having lived in the Pacific Northwest my entire life, have never encountered.

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#224

Post by uola »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #100
untog wrote: post #9

I'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,…

To some extent, this is a choice many Americans intentionally make. There are many jobs that offer European-like benefits, working hours, and employment stability in the US (e.g. Federal government jobs and some companies) but these are frequently viewed as undesirable -- it is not a first choice for many people if circumstances offer something better. The tradeoffs tend to be similar to Europe if you take one of the…

I actually think it's easier to be ambitious in Europe. Both in absolute terms, since it's easier to access good education education and working environment, and in relative terms, since there's more room to work harder than everyone else.

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#225

Post by refurb »

e12e wrote: post #171
pc86 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[Citation needed]

A little Googling seem to suggest that this figure is somewhat representative: the US has slightly more mobility than the UK, which have less mobility than most of Europe: http://www.epi.org/publication/usa-lags-peer-countries-mobil...

Wait a second. That data just measures correlation between father and son in terms of income. Thinking through it, if you had more sons do worse than their fathers economically, they would show up better in this data.

It's not measuring upward mobility, but mobility in general. Seems suspect.

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#226

Post by refurb »

e12e wrote: post #176
zelos wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First hit on Google: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility Graph down the bottom.

A bit disappointing to see you're being down-voted, based on a glance at that wp article, it links to a lot of relevant research (and the gp's statement can hardly be seen as controversial to anyone that's paid even cursory attention to social (in)equality and social studies in the past decades?). It'd be interesting to see a breakdown of the UK on the various countries though.

That data is a proxy for income mobility. It's measuring the correlation between generations. As I mentioned in another reply, it's not measuring upward mobility, but mobility in general. If a country had a future generation do worse economically it would show up as having better mobility.

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#227

Post by coryrc »

chris_7 wrote: post #41
67726e wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, maybe not die in the streets, but in my state the best, most expensive health insurance I can purchase still doesn't kick in until I've dropped several thousand out of pocket. I get decent insurance through my job, but it's still fucking stupid how much I have to spend before it kicks in. Even then, there are all kinds of clauses and stipulations and loop holes. I guarantee if and when I really need my insuranc…

Even worse, when I go to the doctor, I have no idea what I'm going to pay. You can possible decode it, but good luck - and if he or she sends something to a lab, etc. one day a bill will just show up and you'll just have to pay it. The doctor doesn't say "we can do a lab test, it'll cost you $40" or anything. Imagine if your dry cleaner wouldn't tell you what the charge would be until your clothes had already been cl…

They do if you are a Qliance subscriber.

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#228

Post by ObeyTheGuts »

salmon30salmon wrote: post #223
patrickk wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you call cust sup in Europe, the service is way worst. This varies dramatically within Europe. From personal experience, customer service is decent, polite and timely in the UK and Ireland, and generally awful in Germany. It's difficult to generalise across a continent with 700mil+ people (500+ mil in the EU), with enormous cultural variations and expectations of good service (much greater variations than in t…

There is a great variation in the United States. A country of 300 million people, where each state has a unique culture and identity. For some reason, "American" is often generalized to be a caricature that I, having lived in the Pacific Northwest my entire life, have never encountered.

wow, are u saying states in usa have same level culture difference like european countries?

just in spain alone we have 4 different OFFICIAL languages

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#229

Post by christophilus »

wmccullough wrote: post #118
webaholic wrote: post #3

How happy are they working that extra 25%? They are richer, sure. But I don't think being rich is an indicator of your overall state. Looking at [1], you can see that people in european countries come out on top of the happiness index. One could argue that working less is actually better for productivity and overall happiness. [1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-23/these-are-...

I'm about to turn 31, and I make a decent salary as a Senior Software Engineer. I'm deeply considering going to live on a few acres and go full subsistence to avoid this rat race. Software isn't fun anymore, our generation probably won't retire. The worst part is that crippling medical bills and college loan repayment are destroying us financially. I think I'd be happier surviving what I can do myself than to keep do…

Yeah. What kasey said. I've also considered this-- going down the permaculture route. I'd say, take baby-steps. Try WWOOFing with some of your vacation time. If you like it, get a remote job and start incrementally farming. Raise chickens, etc. Going cold-turkey is probably not a great plan!

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#230

Post by todd8 »

jacquesm wrote: post #167
rhapsodic wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of relatives in Alberta. And it seems like the oil industry there is providing a lot of opportunity for people without college degrees to make a good living. But of course, that's just Alberta. I can't comment on the rest of the country.

Yes, but that's very hard work and quite a few of the people that moved to the territories to participate in the boom there already lost their shirt due to the prolonged drop in the price of oil. Alberta is a bit different because the extraction is easier. You can make money in lumber, oil, mining, fishing and lots of other industries but it will not be 'easy' money by any definition, and if you get out without injur…

Yes, logging and fishing are the most dangerous professions by far according to [1].

[1] http://time.com/4326676/dangerous-jobs-america/

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