Americans need to be more French

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It’s meant to be a damning indictment of the US healthcare system but the most shocking revelation for American viewers of Michael Moore’s Sicko is that the French get 30 days paid holiday a year.

America is the only advanced economy in the world that doesn’t guarantee its workers any paid vacation at all. Not one day. And even among the minority of US workers who are lucky enough to get paid vacation benefits, the average number of days enjoyed is just 12. Studies show that most Americans would gladly sacrifice income in return for more time off, yet they keep working harder. Why? It’s what economists call a smart for one, dumb for all problem. Although Americans as a whole would like more holiday, the incentives for individuals, if they want to keep up with the Joneses and retain a reputation as a good employee, is to abide by the norms.

The solution is to emulate us Europe, which uses the government’s role as an enforcer of collective sentiment to legislate the preferences that individuals could not, on their own, enact.

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3 Comments

shaun sayers on January 6th, 2008

There are a few things in life that really do need regulation, and advertising is one of those things. The central problem is that humans, uniquely as a species, can be persuaded to want things they don’t really need and whilst that may be good for the sellers, it is not a universal good. For example, it results in the production of a whole load of crap that has a life cycle of a millisecond, but still needs costly disposal, the steady migration of scarce capital from the witless to the commercially exploitative and, ultimately, to an increase in the appetite for unsustainable credit and a longer hours culture

I blogged about it a while back

http://blog.capablepeople.co.uk/blog/_archives/2007/10/28/3318222.html

shaun sayers on January 6th, 2008

There are a few things in life that really do need regulation, and advertising is one of those things. The central problem is that humans, uniquely as a species, can be persuaded to want things they don't really need and whilst that may be good for the sellers, it is not a universal good. For example, it results in the production of a whole load of crap that has a life cycle of a millisecond, but still needs costly disposal, the steady migration of scarce capital from the witless to the commercially exploitative and, ultimately, to an increase in the appetite for unsustainable credit and a longer hours culture

I blogged about it a while back

http://blog.capablepeople.co.uk/blog/_archives/...

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