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The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

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Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#181
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I visited the US for the first time while on honeymoon and a couple of friends we visited while over there asked how I was handling doing work while away, it was an eye-opening insight into American culture I'd never witnessed before but it was a good opportunity to explain work-life balance from a European pov though, I didn't hear any counter-arguments from that small sample, maybe someday it'll catch on.

In Holland, everyone takes off 4 - 6 weeks in the summer to travel the world. This is so different than Americans: 1) In the U.S. you can work for years at a company before getting more than 1 or 2 weeks paid vacation. 2) Most Americans don't travel much outside their own state or region, let alone country. Most don't even own passports. 3) Even when not on the job, either at night, on the weekends, or on vacation, A…

> In Holland, everyone takes off 4 - 6 weeks in the summer to travel the world. This is so different than Americans

No we don't.

I have 5 weeks of holiday a year, total. I take 2 weeks around christmas. Maybe a week somewhere in Spring, that leaves 2 weeks summer holidays. Plus, you want to keep a few spare days in case you need an incidental day off for whatever reason.

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#182
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't Europeans pay similar levels of tax to Americans?

Depends on which europeans you mean. The higher taxed countries like the nordics pay mad taxes. I don't mind though because I feel it's well spent (i.e. my attitude towards public spending is that it is usually pretty efficient ). That's probably a big difference to the US where the attitude seems to be that taxes are pretty much a black hole. Tax calc for me: Employer pays $8k Payroll taxes deducted: $2k My gross sa…

US way:

You make $8k a month:

You pay $2k in taxes (Employer pays an additional $1k in tax), so your income is 9k.

You pay $500 in health and other benefits (employer pays another $500)

If you spend remaining $5.5k, you'll usually pay $250-$500 In sales taxes.

In other words, you have $5k remaining to spend on shit that you probably don't need.

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't actually need a passport to travel within the EU. Just a European id card. Still, most people I know do have passports, but that might tell you more about my particular bubble than anything else.

No point in an ID card when a passport is only slightly dearer, but more useful.

The form factor. My national ID is the size of a credit card, so I always keep it in my wallet. For something that lets me visit a good thirty countries, that's good enough value for me.

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#184
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> whereas in Europe it's normally free While we're correcting misconceptions, in the UK it's most definitely not free. But I believe it's still a lot cheaper than the US. The universities are capped on the fees they can charge, and your student loan is regulated by the government (you only start paying back when you're earning over a threshold).

When I look at the UK from Scandinavia, it seems to me that it's basically "50/50 continental Europe and the US". Wage inequality, parental leaves, employment security, higher education etc.are decidedly "non-european" in the UK. So yes when I talk about "Europe" in the context of "Europe vs US" I think the UK needs to be considered separately.

Yes, I'm Norwegian and moved to the UK, and it was a shock to see "US conditions" in Europe, and took a lot to get used to, even though the UK still have a lot of protections and welfare systems the US doesn't.

(to the Americans: In many European countries "US conditions" is commonly used in political discourse as a way of scaring voters with the image of chaos and suffering)

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#185
post #73
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And many of them think that people in Europe have it worse. That the economy would just collapse into African-levels of poverty if there was mandatory paid holidays. This is a danger of American TV shows and movie studios remaking shows for the American audiences. They don't get to see that Europe is mostly a developed place.

Not to disagree with the parent comment (because overall I prefer the European way) but we do have it worse in some ways. Salaries for professionals are markedly lower, we live in much smaller houses etc. I get the feeling that when you're winning at life in America, you're really winning. But when you're losing you're really losing. In Europe the ups and downs of life are more smoothed out.

>In Europe the ups and downs of life are more smoothed out.

When a substantial portion of "success" (especially monetary) can be attributed to luck, isn't this the sort of environment you want?

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#186
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I visited the US for the first time while on honeymoon and a couple of friends we visited while over there asked how I was handling doing work while away, it was an eye-opening insight into American culture I'd never witnessed before but it was a good opportunity to explain work-life balance from a European pov though, I didn't hear any counter-arguments from that small sample, maybe someday it'll catch on.

In Holland, everyone takes off 4 - 6 weeks in the summer to travel the world. This is so different than Americans: 1) In the U.S. you can work for years at a company before getting more than 1 or 2 weeks paid vacation. 2) Most Americans don't travel much outside their own state or region, let alone country. Most don't even own passports. 3) Even when not on the job, either at night, on the weekends, or on vacation, A…

So assuming one would want to work in the US, how do you bargain for the standard 6 weeks vacation? Or are there just a few positions where you can get that?

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#187
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally every Uber driver I've spoken to was happy. In fact many of them have actually quit other jobs, to drive an Uber.

And literally every person who has carried bags to my hotel room has seemed pleased to serve me.

You really have little respect for service workers, don't you? Many people in tourism actually like what they do. Others even see you as the sucker.

I came her to agree with the gf comment. It may be partially geographic, as I'm in Miami and about 75% of the drivers I've spoken with are Venezuelan, arrived in the last 2 years or so, and are very happy with their life change and their job driving.

And the other 25% are largely either other immigrants or former taxi drivers who are, after talking with a number of them about how the economics worked in taxis and with Uber/Lyft, significantly less exploited than they were working for taxi companies. They see Uber/Lyft as an upgrade, a big one.

Trying actually talking with them and asking enough to get to their real opinions. You might hear some spectacular stories, like the Cuban driver I spoke with who walked ashore in Key West on July 4th, and the beachgoers paid a taxi to his family's house in Miami (a 3 hour taxi fare). Then, after he ended up on the street he panhandled and saved enough to rent a car and drive Uber/Lyft while he began working to get his electrician's license in the US (he was an electrician in Cuba). He was just a few weeks from getting his license.

Tenacity. Pure tenacity. The gig economy was working very well for him. And he was quite happy with how he was able to use it to improve his life.

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#188
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you describe about really winning/loosing is inequality. I generally think that inequality is bad for populations (you may disagree, but usually, those in favor of inequality are those on the right side of it)

Though weirdly in modern American politics, there's some degree of inversion there, with the "coastal liberal elites" voting for "socialist" healthcare and the unemployed coal miner with black lung disease voting against it.

Democrats are on average poorer than Republicans, so, there may be some inversion, but the general principle still stands

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#189
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you describe about really winning/loosing is inequality. I generally think that inequality is bad for populations (you may disagree, but usually, those in favor of inequality are those on the right side of it)

Though weirdly in modern American politics, there's some degree of inversion there, with the "coastal liberal elites" voting for "socialist" healthcare and the unemployed coal miner with black lung disease voting against it.

This is overly generalizing a complex issue. In America, we have a two party system that has basically been taken over by lobbying and gerrymandering. Both sides are different socially, but identical fiscally. Propaganda has been spread massively, amplifying everyone's natural us-vs-them mentality. Plus the populist politician on the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders, was suppressed and basically not allowed to be the candidate. Our problems are a lot worse than "but poor people vote for the Bad Guys!"

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#190
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to disagree with the parent comment (because overall I prefer the European way) but we do have it worse in some ways. Salaries for professionals are markedly lower, we live in much smaller houses etc. I get the feeling that when you're winning at life in America, you're really winning. But when you're losing you're really losing. In Europe the ups and downs of life are more smoothed out.

> Salaries for professionals are markedly lower, we live in much smaller houses etc. This is an age old debate, and it's very hard to compare one vast continent to another. Regional differences between US cities and European cities are at least as large or larger than the difference between the avereages of US and European salaries/living standards etc. The difference between central manhattan and rural Apalachia is…

A software engineer in a startup in berlin earns maybe a median salary of 60k euros ayear at a 40% tax rate. Thats less of what interns make in the us at a 30% tax rate.

An experienced engineer at google or facebook make 200k with a sizable signup bonus. As far as I know, theres no comparison between what a soft dev makes in the us and what he makes in europe.

This is from someone that lives in south america, and is considering moving to either europe, NZ or America, and hands down america pays so much more than anything else.

Not to mention that people criticizing work-life balance of engineers in the us havent visited google offices.

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