Bill Maher on vacation time

Bill Maher's new rule on vacation time highlights some key facts. France gets a minimum of 30 paid vacation days, "which is why French men always look like they've just been blown." Sri Lanka gets 28 paid vacation days. Europeans during the work week take afternoon siestas. All of which emphasizes a key point: that life is about happiness and not just about making a huge profit for our task masters.

Many Americans get 2-week vacation but do they take it? Maher points out that many don't because they're afraid their job won't be there when they get back. We brag about our workers being the most productive but it's because of the fear that motivates them to work overtime, often because employers refuse to hire adequate workforce to match the workflow. So we end up working way more than 40 hours per week. And take vacation? How can we do that when we'll be so far behind when we get back and have to pay for it with 60+ work weeks for 3 months just to catch up to our usual 50+ hour work week.


And if we don't like it? There are plenty of highly-skilled unemployed workers that have bills to pay and families to feed that they'd jump to work a 60-hour week instead of starving.This is an intentional situation created by the 1% to enslave the worker with lower wages and benefits with longer work hours. Which keeps the cycle going by further weakening Unions, who fight this very thing. Maher: "That old union hall where workers used to meet and fight back? That is a Panera Bread now."

I'm fortunate in that I saved enough money to walk away from this sort of labor abuse and can survive without participating in such exploitation. But for most this is not an option and they are truly wage slaves. And will continue to be as long as crony Republicans of corporate interests keep the money flowing up and the slave labor "trickling down."