Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?

"Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?": America's misguided culture of overwork

Germany's workers have higher productivity, shorter hours and greater quality of life. How did we get it so wrong?

www.salon.com...

Since the start of the recession, the number of unemployed in the U.S. has doubled. Those who are fortunate enough to still have jobs are often working longer hours for less pay, with the ever-present threat of losing being laid off. But even before the recession, American workers were already clocking in the most hours in the West. Compared to our German cousins across the pond, we work 1,804 hours versus their 1,436 hours – the equivalent of nine extra 40-hour workweeks per year. The Protestant work ethic may have begun in Germany, but it has since evolved to become the American way of life.

According to Thomas Geoghegan, a labor lawyer in Chicago and author of "Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?: How the European Model Can Help You Get a Life," European social democracy – particularly Germany’s – offers some tantalizing solutions to our overworked age. In comparison to the U.S., the Germans live in a socialist idyll. They have six weeks of federally mandated vacation, free university tuition, nursing care, and childcare. In an attempt to make Germany more like the U.S., Angela Merkel has proposed deregulation and tax cuts only to be met with fury on the left. Over multiple trips spanning a decade, Geoghegan decided to investigate how the Germans were living so well, and by extension, what we might be able to learn from them.

Salon spoke to Geoghegan over the phone about Germany's luxurious worker benefits, our own dysfunctional attitudes towards work, and how we can make our lives more like theirs.

People in the U.S. often pride themselves for working more than our European counterparts. Why do we work so much in the first place?

There aren’t any historical or cultural reasons for it. Americans famously had more leisure time than the Japanese back in the 1960s. I would say if you did a survey of most people who are in their late 50s or 60s, they will tell you that they take fewer vacations than their parents did. Now why did that change? It wasn’t because of the Pilgrims. People work hard in America, but there was a period where leisure time was increasing. I quoted Linda Bell and Richard Freeman in an article they wrote about what happened during the ‘90s. There was nobody to stop you from working longer. There was no government check, there was no union check as there is on excessive work as there is in Germany or elsewhere in Europe. These institutional checks are gone. So people feel like lab rats: "If I work an extra 10 minutes over the person in the cubicle next to me, then I’m less likely to get laid off." It’s a very rational response.

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Source

(Please give the rest of the article a read- this excerpt is only a third of it and there is a longer, more in-depth Q&A within)


What America has going for it is relative freedom, what it doesn't have going for it is an economic Democracy. Social Democracy (like what you see in many European countries) is hands-down the best deal for the most people. If we truly are sick of a minority of plutocrats gaining most of the wealth and power, then we must at least adopt more/other forms of Social Democracy and public assistance. There are just certain things that the market WILL NOT realistically provide for millions of people in a country; so long as centralized governments/markets exist, there will be a massive underclass working the gears of the machine, there's no way around that, but at the very LEAST we must provide some perks for ourselves. The manner in which wealth is dished out is not necessarily fair, intelligent, balanced, proportionate or a good deal for us. The vast majority of us can expect never to get into the good ol' boys club no matter our efforts, so we should take a little more stock in our own. Essentially Americans enjoy a decent portion of freedom, but there's a plump price tag on it, especially if you want a side of prosperity. This is simply a matter of using our government to serve our needs, if we truly want a good deal out of our governments and markets then we must implement the most effective/beneficial programs in the most harmless/budget-balanced manners.

Now, I am ultimately an Anarchist... I believe ultimately most of our intense hierarchical/centralized structures must be dismantled and de-clawed. However, I also believe that that's a pipe dream (at least in my lifetime) so I do have opinions/stances on policies/practices WITHIN the current system. That being said, I believe that not achieving a peaceful Anarchy is NO EXCUSE for not adopting greater freedom, equality, ecological sustainability, prosperity, humanity, peace, human rights, etc. within the hierarchical systems we already have. That being said, and as I've said before, adopting the right social programs INTELLIGENTLY is a no-brainer and without question one of the only decent things governments can do for us. We must demand such a deal from our governments and deny the plutocracy a say. We must also RESIST any attempts by the government to bundle/couple social programs with any kind of police-state, totalitarian, or excessive nanny-state measures which seek to control/monitor us rather than SERVE us. It can, has, and will be done.

It's certainly true that a lot of European countries have better social care.

The graph below shows the gini rating of different countries. Basicly the higher up the graph you go the more unequal it is. Until the 90's the US and Europe were pretty similar although in the last 10-20 years the US has risen quite a bit as has the UK and China. Mexico is going the other way

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d722308f0c17.png[/atsimg]

reply to post by NoHierarchy


It is because the corporate think tanks have brainwashed most Americans. We have become a country that is filled with self centered greedy people that are easily led because they are self centered and greedy.

I keep hearing people say I hate the American government but the people are ok.

Well the people are not ok, they have let greed be the guiding light.