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Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

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

#321

Post by kwhitefoot »

radlad wrote: post #39
vinay427 wrote: post #17

Earlier 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.

The 10% of Americans who don't. The other Americans who do but still can't afford to pay what their health care doesn't cover, etc. Even with sufficient health care, I try to avoid the doctor because of the cost.

> Even with sufficient health care, I try to avoid the doctor because of the cost.

If that is generally true then that is one really big difference between the US and northern Europe and Scandinavia. I never think of money when I or any of my family visit a doctor or hospital. Here in Norway I have to pay about USD30 to visit my GP, various fees for medical tests and so on, and I have to pay something towards any prescriptions but there is a cap on how much I will have to pay each year (about USD150 for drugs). Beyond that limit it is all free (except that of course it is paid for out of general taxation).

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

#322

Post by havetocharge »

Reading the comments here, it is amazing to discover how many people dislike their work. When I was younger, I too had my share of jobs that I wasn't overly thrilled about, but with time I've found a great deal of fulfillment in what I do, and I truly hope the same for others.

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

#323

Post by k__ »

yodsanklai wrote: post #232
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. I remember a sign at a Mac Donald's in New York that said something like "if the waiter doesn't smile, you get a free burger". In Europe you may not get the forced smile, but it doesn't mean the service is worse. Overall, I'd say the service is slightly better in the US, but you can see it's totally fake and I find it a little bit disturbing.

Most of the time I feel like US or UK people are fake, because of all the forced smalltalk.

Yes, this is their culture and I respect it, but I just don't feel comfortable with it :/

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

#324

Post by BadCookie »

zeveb wrote: post #153
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…

> This sounds less like people in Europe are "discouraged" from working, rather than many Americans must work longer because they can't retire. Very few people retire at 20 or 40; I fail to see why in an era where people are starting to expect to live until their 80s they should stop working at 65. Is it not good for us all to have the contributions, knowledge & experience of those over 65 in the workplace? Pension p…

Perhaps it is reasonable to expect a white-collar worker to work past 65, but how about a blue-collar worker or a laborer? Not everyone sits in a chair in front of a computer all day for their job.

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

#325

Post by exBarrelSpoiler »

dragandj wrote: post #251
ajmurmann wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

In most developed EU countries, especially the happy Denmark, mr. Taxman will make sure that you see little marginal benefit of those longer hours.

Well, for those who love work so much, they'd do so regardless of the extra monetary benefits, would they not?

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

#326

Post by massysett »

wldcordeiro wrote: post #314
mtberatwork wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of time spent commuting certainly doesn't help either.

Commute time should really be considered part of work. I wouldn't be making the trip if it weren't for going to the job so why shouldn't it be considered work hours?

Because you have considerable influence over how long your commute time is. I can choose to live in a tiny apartment across the street from my job and walk to work, or I can choose a large house and drive 50 minutes to work. That's a personal decision. The worker who chooses the 50 minutes isn't entitled to anything more than the one who lives close by.

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

#327

Post by wott »

salmon30salmon wrote: post #283
snovv_crash wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just in Switzerland (which has only 8 million people) there are 4 official languages. Only 30k people speak Romansh, so let's ignore that one. But if you go to the German part, most people don't even understand French. Likewise, if you go to the French part, most people don't understand German. The Italian part is quite a bit smaller than rest of Switzerland, and most people there choose to learn French as a second l…

Right, which is why I am _not_ saying that the EU is in any way homogeneous. What I am saying is that _neither_ the EU or the US are homogeneous. And the same treatment that is applied to the EU when claiming that a certain culture describes "Europe" needs to be applied to the US.

No, it is not comparable by any measure. If I move 30 km from my home to the South, I won't be able to understand people and the culture is totally different, the meal hours are shifted by two hours, the food is different, the work times are different, the social system is different, the wages are vastly different, the prices are different, the family organisation is totally different, the religion could be different.

Why? Because there is a bloody border in between. These are different countries, they have evolved separately for centuries. Don't you get it? Those are not two states of the United States of Europa, those are countries forged with a millennium of historical evolution.

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

#328

Post by _benedict »

lovich wrote: post #320
_benedict wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a huge distinction between an official language and a language that is in common use by an immigrant community. Within the UK there are far more than five commonly used immigrant languages, and many are not European - Health and Safety documents come in 18 languages - mostly not EU languages. To compare your five supported languages with a country that has four official languages, and significant cultural di…

I guess it cant be compared at all since the US doesn't have any official languages. De jure != de facto

You seem to be missing the majority of my point, but I agree it's an arbitrary distinction as a technicality.

However, 32 US states do declare English as their official language. That's certainly more homogenous than the EU, the original point of contention. Just 2 of 28 EU states declare their official national language as English, and only one of these has English as their only official language (indeed, only the UK has English as their official EU language, which means English may no longer be an official language at the EU level after the UK leaves).

In the US, half of all states have English as their only official language.

This is all barely to the point, though (language is only a small part of culture). While the US may not be homogenous, it is clearly more homogenous than the EU, and by a large margin. The attempt to suggest otherwise was just absurd.

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

#329

Post by [deleted] »

GunlogAlm wrote: post #281
salmon30salmon wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You'll find the same level of cultural variation in almost any country. It's nowhere near the same level of variation you find between countries of Europe. For example: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each have unique cultural differences; distinct identities. The same goes for counties within England, e.g. Cornwall or Devon versus, say, Yorkshire.

[deleted]

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

#330

Post by Accacin »

k__ wrote: post #323
yodsanklai wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you call cust sup in Europe, the service is way worst. I remember a sign at a Mac Donald's in New York that said something like "if the waiter doesn't smile, you get a free burger". In Europe you may not get the forced smile, but it doesn't mean the service is worse. Overall, I'd say the service is slightly better in the US, but you can see it's totally fake and I find it a little bit disturbing.

Most of the time I feel like US or UK people are fake, because of all the forced smalltalk. Yes, this is their culture and I respect it, but I just don't feel comfortable with it :/

I must live in a different part of the UK than you, because I rarely get any small talk. Yes, they do come and ask if everything's okay, but that's it really.

When I visited the US it was like every 5mins asking if I wanted anything else, a drink, etc., etc.

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