Many Americans love to mouth the idea that we are a “special’ nation, which is involved in the promotion of human rights!
If that is so, isn’t a basic human right in the modern civilized world to be able to have a DECENT AMOUNT of VACATION time to spend with the family, to explore new horizons through travel, to get away from the stress and tension of corporate America and the capitalistic system which has little regard for labor rights?
It is well known that corporations love to work their staff hard, to the point that by the mid 40s, many have heart attacks, strokes, and cancer, caused by the stress and pressure of their jobs, and then many are summarily dismissed without any pension guarantees and told to clean out their workplaces while security is watching, so that they don’t overreact to their being mistreated and abused!
Why is it that in this nation that is so outstanding, according to political rhetoric, the average worker receives no more than two weeks vacation, and in many cases, is expected not to utilize it all, and certainly not two weeks in a row, while elsewhere, the norm is FIVE to SIX weeks, often altogether plus Holiday weeks, off rather than days off?
More than two dozen industrialized nations require workers to take four or more weeks of paid vacation, and three nations—Finland, Brazil and France—guarantee six weeks off!
The fact is that there is no federal law that mandates that employers offer ANY paid vacation, and one out of four people, therefore, have no ability to take vacation at all! This country is the ONLY advanced nation that does not guarantte annual leave for all citizens!
Many love to say we don’t want to be like France–as if it is terrible to emulate the French and other advanced nations in promoting the human right to a DECENT AMOUNT of VACATION in the 21st century!