The Grim Truth About America

Americans, I have some bad news for you:

You have the worst quality of life in the developed world – by a wide margin.

If you had any idea of how people really lived in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many parts of Asia, you’d be rioting in the streets calling for a better life. In fact, the average Australian or Singaporean taxi driver has a much better standard of living than the typical American white-collar worker.

I know this because I am an American, and I escaped from the prison you call home.

I have lived all around the world, in wealthy countries and poor ones, and there is only one country I would never consider living in again: The United States of America. The mere thought of it fills me with dread. Read the rest: America: The Grim Truth

And I like the info on vacation time. Most Americans, if they get any at all, get a measly 2 weeks, or ten working days, of paid time off a year. At the company where I work, you have to be there 5 years before receiving an extra week. Then that's it.
Workers have the right to expect more than that, and to be able to look forward to more leisure time, but the wage-slave masters won't give up their control of our lives. It's short-sighted, of course, because a well-rested, more stress-free workforce, is a more productive workforce, but hell, the capitalist bosses don't give a damn, they can just "hire" another slave to replace you anytime they feel like it. Ultimately, for justice to prevail and such exploitation to end, the workers must take control of the workplace directly and run it themselves without bosses or capitalist owners.

...stats on average annual vacation days by country:

Finland: 44
Italy: 42
France: 39
Germany: 35
UK: 25
Japan: 18
USA: 12

The fact is, they work you like dogs in the United States. This should come as no surprise: the United States never got away from the plantation/sweat shop labor model and any real labor movement was brutally suppressed. Unless you happen to be a member of the ownership class, your options are pretty much limited to barely surviving on service-sector wages or playing musical chairs for a spot in a cubicle (a spot that will be outsourced to India next week anyway). The very best you can hope for is to get a professional degree and then milk the system for a slice of the middle-class pie. And even those who claw their way into the middle class are but one illness or job loss away from poverty. Your jobs aren’t secure. Your company has no loyalty to you. They’ll play you off against your coworkers for as long as it suits them, then they’ll get rid of you.

h/t A Division by Zer0