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America's misguided culture of overwork

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Re: America's misguided culture of overwork

#21

Post by Nitramp »

dsplittgerber wrote: post #10

This guy has lots of facts wrong - makes you wonder about his accuracy in research: - no federally mandated six weeks of vacation time (though 4-5 weeks are the norm, even in private sector) - University tuition has been introduced recently (though still low, but will rise as obvious source of gov revenue) - Free nursing care / child care for a small percentage of toddlers only - No labor minister of that name (he is…

Correct, but he's at least a bit wrong in both directions. I was surprised to read people in Tupelo are three times wealthier than people in Hamburg; Tupelo might have a higher GDP, but certainly not three times.

Maybe he was trying to be polemic?

I still agree with the sentiment of the article. European societies sacrifice a bit of growth potential and individual freedom to get better living conditions for all. I think that's a wise move, and going over the board into the opposite direction, as America sometimes feels, has the potential to truly damage society as a whole.

Re: America's misguided culture of overwork

#22

Post by arethuza »

mike-cardwell wrote: post #2

I'm surprised wealth distribution wasn't mentioned in the stuff about GDP comparison. I'm no Economist but I was under the impression that wealth is distributed more evenly in European countries than in the US. We have rich people here in Europe but the US seems to have lots of insanely rich people and lots of poor people to go with it...

Norway is an interesting example - one of the highest per capita GDP figures but unusual in that the distribution of incomes is very narrow e.g.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspon...

Re: America's misguided culture of overwork

#24

Post by microtonal »

lenni wrote: post #11
Hagelin wrote: post #3

"How did Germany become such a great place to work in the first place? The Allies did it.” What? I’m pretty sure the European labour movement and the Social Democrats wouldn’t agree with that answer. On a list of possible explanations, I think ”You can thank the Americans for it” would rank rather low.

Maybe not so much in this specific instance, but Germany's economic and political structure (decentralisation of power and money) was a direct result of the occupation by the Allies, who wanted to avoid a strong central government. America was hugely influential in 1945-70.

But the Dutch, French, Scandinavian, and others aren't, and the those systems is very comparable to that of Germany. Many of the ideas originate from far before WWII, and had a strong presence (and development) in Europe since events such as the French revolution.

It's America-centrism to think that all welfare and modernism is brought to the world by the USA. One typical anecdote a former exchange student told me, that some high school kids in the USA believed (this was at the end of the nineties) that European countries do not have their own radio channels ;). Go educate yourself, the average Western-European citizen has more luxury, more free time, and better health-care than the average citizen of the United States (I know, I have visited the US often).

The primary advantage of the US is that it is far easier to set up a company, and make it really big. If you make it, you will be rich and wealthy. If you fail, you will hit rock bottom. It is a consequence of the system, wages, taxing, etc.

Re: America's misguided culture of overwork

#27

Post by othello »

lenni wrote: post #11
Hagelin wrote: post #3

"How did Germany become such a great place to work in the first place? The Allies did it.” What? I’m pretty sure the European labour movement and the Social Democrats wouldn’t agree with that answer. On a list of possible explanations, I think ”You can thank the Americans for it” would rank rather low.

Maybe not so much in this specific instance, but Germany's economic and political structure (decentralisation of power and money) was a direct result of the occupation by the Allies, who wanted to avoid a strong central government. America was hugely influential in 1945-70.

Certainly not, the high degree of decentralisation in Germany predates post-WWII by at least a century. [1]

Before it was unified in 1870, Germany was made of a number of small independent kingdoms, loosely associated through the Holy Roman Empire until 1806, then through the German Confederation from 1815 until the unification under Prussia's dominance in 1870 [2].

This late unification (in comparison with France or England for example, which already had an embryo of a unified central state as early as the XIIIth century [3]) explains the non-centralised nature of the German state and economy. The Allies had very little to do with it.

1: http://countrystudies.us/germany/151.htm

2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire#Modern_period

3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_France#Saint_Louis

Re: America's misguided culture of overwork

#28

Post by eru »

dsplittgerber wrote: post #20
lenni wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2.2% economic growth in the last quarter; higher than anything since reunification. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/aug/13/german-econom...

Guess my irony didn't show. Compared to the US and Asia and even EU-growth, Germany has not performed ahead of the pack at all, growth-wise. It has trailed behind US growth for years.

It would be more interesting to look at inflation-adjusted growth per capita. The US still has a growing population, and has to grow its GDP just to stay even.

Re: America's misguided culture of overwork

#29

Post by c4urself »

standard offers i've come across in contracts is 2 free days per working month here, however 20 days is minimum by law not counting holidays. i've lived both in the US and EU, and while i feel there is more freedom in the US, the problem is as soon as you start working you can't enjoy them cause you're working 40+ hours per week and barely have any vacation.

Re: America's misguided culture of overwork

#30

Post by frobozz »

c4urself wrote: post #29

standard offers i've come across in contracts is 2 free days per working month here, however 20 days is minimum by law not counting holidays. i've lived both in the US and EU, and while i feel there is more freedom in the US, the problem is as soon as you start working you can't enjoy them cause you're working 40+ hours per week and barely have any vacation.

Only working 10/11 days per month - 8 in February? Where is this?
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