I keep reading these sort of articles and wondering why the American people seem so opposed to basic employment law. Here in Socialist Yurop, the Working Time Directive means that no employer can compel an employee to work for longer than 48 hours per week. All workers are entitled to a legal minimum of 5.6 weeks of paid holiday. You all seem to agree that you work too long and don't get enough holiday. I've never on…
Because, for quite a few cultural and structural reasons - e.g. our strong culture of individualism, pluralistic civil society, and common-law as opposed to civil-law tradition - Americans are relatively skeptical of allowing a priori regulatory intervention into the immediate circumstances of their lives.
People here generally believe that they ought to be free to make their own arrangements without outside intervention, that law should only be used as a failsafe mechanism, and that legislation/regulation are only necessary where the existing constraints within civil society and case-by-case judicial process have not successfully averted a significant problem.
There are plenty of exceptions to this, of course, but what you call "basic employment law" is quite often regarded as an unjustified intrusion into people's private affairs.
> You all seem to agree that you work too long and don't get enough holiday.
Sounds like a case of "the van is always at the corner". Some people may complain; but most people do have more than adequate vacation time, and, apparently, there are more people who choose not even to use all of their vacation time (36%) than there are who complain of overwork (33%) [1]. Despite what the consultant quoted in that article says, it does appear that it's usually a voluntary choice.
[1] http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-money/2011/08/04/overworked...