From: cjb@canopus.Stanford.EDU (Cecil Bloch)
Subject: Re: Why do Americans get so little vacation time?
Reply-To: cjb@vega.stanford.edu
Organization: DSO, Stanford University
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 19:38:04 GMT

	I'm relatively new to USENET and have been following this thread  
with great interest.  I'm a citizen by naturalization and have been here,  
in California, for 11 years. Prior to that I was 10 years in Britain and  
Europe, prior to that Africa, and I've spent months-long periods in  
Australia and various islands in the South Pacific.  I have never  
understood this business of 2 week vacations and in fact did not realise  
it was so when I first settled here - I assumed (naively) that it was the  
same as everywhere else I'd been.  It came as something of a shock, and I  
still do not understand why Americans, who are so vociferous about freedom  
and human rights and so-called quality-of-life, have not done something  
about it.  I'm fortunate enough to work for an outfit that's associated  
with a university, and I get around 5 weeks.  Were I to find myself back  
in the commercial world I'd probably move to another country - with  
regrets, because I like living here and I like the people.  But the simple  
fact of the matter - notwithstanding one's ideological bent - is that  
everything I've seen indicates that people elsewhere have richer lives in  
spite of somewhat lower material standards. I think Americans have  
seriously lost sight of what life is all about and have developed a sort  
of cultural tunnel vision, which manifests itself in many other areas as  
well.  Things here seem always to tend towards exteremes.  The concept of  
"freedom" here is not by any means the universal notion Americans believe  
it to be - there are some very odd puritanical distortions to it, which  
curiously enough further the interests of those who have power at the  
expense of those who don't i.e. working stiffs.  Consumerism has come to  
stand for both freedom and choice, as if the only "choice" or "freedom"  
that exists is what you consume.  In many ways I think Americans are  
significantly less free than citizens in many other industrialized  
countries, and vacation time is by no means the only factor.
	I'm puzzled also by the beligerent tone of some of the postings in  
this thread, because what is at issue is one's experience of life and the  
world and all that it has to offer, and you will live and die very much  
the poorer having spent all your working years in a state of more or less  
enforced servitude.
	And as for hours vs. productivity there is certainly no doubt in  
my mind, based admittedly on limited experience, that huge numbers of  
person-hours are wasted here as a result of false starts, changes of  
direction, inefficiencies, political schemes and manipulations,  
smoke-and-mirrors adventures, plain-and-simple bad management (a MAJOR  
problem), and poor worker skills (an even more major problem).
	Last year I spent 5 weeks scuba diving in Fiji and it was the most  
glorious experience I have had, one I will remember for years to come, and  
something that gave and gives me far far more enrichment than a choice of  
25 varieties of bread or 24-hour shopping or  what-have-you.  Convenience  
is certainly very nice, and life here in the US is convenient (for us  
better-paid wage-earners, that is) as nowhere else on earth.  But is that  
the goal of existence? Or even an adequate justfication for an  
impoverished experience of life?
	Throughout my stay in Fiji - as in my travels elsewhere - I came  
across very very few Americans.  Everywhere I went I met Europeans,  
Canadians, Aussies, Scandanavians, and everyone remarked how odd it was  
that there were no Americans... It is more than a little disturbing that a  
nation as rich, powerful and energetic as America should have a population  
so divorced from the world over which it has so much influence, but that's  
another matter...

 -- "Max" Bloch