Our No-Vacation Nation

[pbrower2a]

(08-31-2019, 02:34 PM)beechnut79 Wrote:

(08-16-2019, 05:45 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(08-15-2019, 05:56 PM)sbarrera Wrote:

(08-15-2019, 04:27 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: This is a story I found over on LinkedIn. Thought we could create a thoughtful discussion here. Shouldn't we be feeling as though we just need some space, to get away from the torrid rat race. Many people I believe no longer take vacations not only due to cost but the frantic reality of today's work environment seems to foster the belief that we have to defend or justify our feelings for needing to do so.


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...a-vacation

This is why it's the "Netflix and chill" era. All the relaxation and entertainment you need for $10/month.

Mass low entertainment is the opiate of the masses.

On what is traditionally the final weekend of prime vacation season, there are no doubt many who again this year did not take a real vacation. It seems that most folks may have a lot of irons in the fire at the moment, yet at the same time it may feel like nothing is happening, at least on the plus side of the ledger. We may want to take a breather and just relax, but more often not the so-called to-do list won't let us. There is a group called Take Back Your Time (don't know if that is still the name of it) that has set the wheels in  motion for a much needed policy change. I believe they are seeking a mandate allowing at least two weeks of paid vacation. I think it should be three, and that would still be only meeting European nations half way. 

The link to the site is below. After you look through it you just may come to see that now it's time to see what materializes after all our hard work. As many of you on this forum have indicated, we have gained tremendous in productivity of the past 30+ years yet for most it didn't translate into any increase in vacation or other leisure time except when it was force through actions such as layoffs.

http://www.takebackyourtime.org/

The next liberal era in American politics will repudiate the 3T idea that workers are nothing more than machines of toil devoid of any right to seek happiness. In view of the rise of the Millennial generation, such is sure. We are going to see a revaluation of the lives of children, and we will recognize the need to enrich their lives in experiences instead of stuff.

People do not generally use layoffs for leisure. They are more likely  to use them, if the job pays badly, to seek something else.  Americans have been brainwashed into believing that being overworked and underpaid creates job security. It creates only misery. 

Good ideas:

1. Reducing the regional concentration of the economy. America would be better (and less costly to live in) if economically-ravaged places such as Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, and St. Louis got to experience revitalization. 

2. Strengthening labor unions. Workers have more stake in their jobs if they see their jobs paying well. 

3. (This is happening) -- more sponsorship by employers of college education. Firms that have typically had high turnover (retailing and restaurants) may find that if they are to keep talent around long enough to consider what have been lousy, low-paying "throw-away' jobs as possible careers -- in which they are better workers who deserve above-average pay within the industry. 

4. Reducing the normal workweek to accommodate the gains in productivity. Much of the 40-hour workweek is in fact make-work that has no connection to any meaningful activity -- like office politics and pointless meetings. 

5. Rediscovery of the liberal arts as the appropriate objective of undergraduate education. The liberal arts school may not have taught specific skills, but it taught people what was important, what made society human, how to write coherently,  and how to do rational thought.  

6. Progressive taxation. When taxes were most progressive, small business flourished to the extent that even banking, retailing, and even manufacturing were often cottage industries.  Low taxes on the rich have fostered monopolization, vertical integration, and the rise of a Soviet-style nomenklatura among administrative elites. Count on this: all economic elites -- even the nomenklatura of the allegedly classless society of the Soviet Union and related "socialist" states  -- have tended to pass the means of elite wealth through inheritance. Anyone who wishes to support capitalism as a norm must recognize the small-scale entrepreneur as the real hero of capitalism. The small-scale entrepreneur cannot exploit in the same way as tycoons, big landowners, and executive elites. 

7. a New Deal for the 21st century. The first one transformed the Tennessee Valley from Third World to First World and brought unprecedented prosperity to the Columbia and Colorado River valleys. America has plenty of areas that economic modernity has either never been (like the Mississippi Delta), always was precarious (West Virginia), or has been lost.