Hey America, Take a vacation!

This is actually a very good point. Technology is leading to greater and longer term unemployment. Consumerism hasn't made people happy and has left them in debt. Product isn't getting sold and isn't needed.

American life has become very compartmentalized, narrow, and reduced.

A very good way to fix this is to increase the number of vacation days. It would be very good for both most employed Americans, the environment, and the unemployed.

I've always said that the wealthy man is the man who has a lot of money and a lot of free time. The unemployed are certainly not vacationing because they can't afford to do anything. Likewise, the big wheel making 200k working 60 hours per week has a poor quality of life too.

One needs balance and America needs it more then ever.
 
Quote from Lights:

happiness is relative to one's perception of reality.
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Exactly the point. I would bet Hugh Heffner with his 85 years is happier than Steve Jobs with his billions....
 
i think people in other nations are happier just because there is less to compare to. a european may be "happy" until he gets a taste of american culture and then believes he has a comparatively shittier life. it's all really about the carrot waving which the bid/offer spread money changers are good at..

Quote from Pekelo:

Exactly the point. I would bet Hugh Heffner with his 85 years is happier than Steve Jobs with his billions....
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It's true Americans don't get many days off, but if more days off were available, most still wouldn't take them... it's a mentality issue, I believe. My friend in Chicago gets up to 15 days off each year but only takes a week, two maximum, not all 3. Case in point.
 
Quote from Grandluxe:

Hey, America: Take a vacation!
By Fareed Zakaria, CNN

These are the dog days of summer, and in this hot, sweltering weather most Americans are busy working. (I know, I know, not you folks in the Hamptons.)

Meanwhile, most Europeans are busy vacationing. Thus it has ever been - only it's getting worse.

Nowadays the average European gets about three times as many days of paid vacation as his counterpart in America. Italy has the most vacation days, with the average worker there getting 42 paid days off, according to the World Tourism Organization.

Next was France with 37 days, Germany with 35, Brazil at 34, the United Kingdom at 28, Canada with 26 and Korea and Japan both with 25. The United States was near the bottom of the list with the average worker getting 13 days off.

But even with those 13 days off, only 57 percent of Americans take them all.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

The conventional answer is that this attitude toward work makes the American economy the envy of the world. America has a hectic, turbo-charged system that builds, destroys and rebuilds, all at warp speed. It's what created the information revolution, Silicon Valley, hedge funds, biotechnology, nanotechnology and so on. And there's no time in it for lolling on the beach!

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/04/hey-america-take-a-vacation/

did you take your vacation this year like those lazy europeans?
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i have taken 2 so far this year.
 
Quote from Kazak_Trader:

My friend in Chicago ... but only takes a week, two maximum, not all 3.
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You didn't explain. WHY doesn't he take it? Is he afraid of losing his job? Is he a workaholic?
He can't finish his job if he takes too many days? etc????
 
Quote from Lights:

happiness is relative to one's perception of reality. poverty stricken indians in mumbai may say they're happy but that's cos they just got their rice ration on time.
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very true, I was born in India but grew up in the west. I asked my father once on how people in the slums could ever be happy as they work manual labor in the indian heat and have nothing to show for it. He stated that people compare their situation with others of similar background thus many people in the slums are very happy as they may be doing better than their neighbors in life.

A guy from the slum will not compare his situation against a guy driving a BMW in Mumbai. He will compare his situation against his brother or a friend. Furthermore, some people are prone to be more happy genetically and its not absurd to think a guy from a slum will live a happier life than someone in west with a mercedes.
 
Quote from indo:

very true, I was born in India but grew up in the west. I asked my father once on how people in the slums could ever be happy as they work manual labor in the indian heat and have nothing to show for it. He stated that people compare their situation with others of similar background thus many people in the slums are very happy as they may be doing better than their neighbors in life.

A guy from the slum will not compare his situation against a guy driving a BMW in Mumbai. He will compare his situation against his brother or a friend. Furthermore, some people are prone to be more happy genetically and its not absurd to think a guy from a slum will live a happier life than someone in west with a mercedes.
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You're probably only half right at best.

The middle class in India and other countries where the wealth difference is massive love to say the poor are happy 'if they get 2 bowls of rice a day'. But many times this is bull and it's used by the middle class to make them feel better about the poor living in a slum 200 yards away, ie lets not feel sorry for them, I just saw them eating.

The reality though I think is the poor aren't happy even when they've got 5 bowls of rice a day. This is especially the case now when the media is full of tales of how the rich live, ie it's beamed right into their cardboard shacks, rubbing it in every hour of the day.

Interestingly enough a community leader (one of the good guys) from a poor estate in London said he thought one of the reasons for the riots in London was MTV Cribs, again the rich rubbing salt into the wounds of the poor. I think he makes a valid point.
 
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