8+Tabling Americans And 4 Tabling Europeans

[Peter McDermott]

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100k/year in manhattan is a pittance.


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Less so if you own your apartment and don't have rent to pay, but year, a dollar in NY is only worth 60c when compared with the cost of living somewhere like Muncie, Indiana.

And Manhattan is cheap when compared with London.

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Your friend just wanted to bitch about the cost of the pizza.

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The pizza was just an example. They whined about the cost of everything because the exchange rate makes Americans feel busto in Europe.

Which is why a UK bus company has just bought Greyhound. The US dollar = monopoly money today.

[costanza_g]

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I think Americans believe the more they work the further ahead they get and Europeans believe the less they work the more free time they have.

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This is an interesting observation, however irrelavent because a 4-tabler and an 8-tabler spend the same amount of time at the tables. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[DesertCat]

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Which is why a UK bus company has just bought Greyhound. The US dollar = monopoly money today.

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This is true, our run of big deficits has killed the dollars value. And if we keep it up, eventually we'll be as poor as Europeans.

But hard work is often the only way for most people to improve their standard of living. Most European countries have laws against hard work, i.e. they have forced vacations and restrict work days, making their populace poorer. So most Europeans get live in smaller houses, with fewer luxuries, less disposable income, etc.

I may choose to work less because I value incremental free time over incremental earnings, but I'd rather be able to make that choice rather than have it imposed on me by my government. By the large numbers of European entrepreneurs who move to the U.S. to start businesses, I'd guess the brighter and more motivated Europeans agree with me.

[MicroBob]

You have a point that having MORE vacation imposed upon you than you want if you would rather be working your ass off to make more coin kind of sucks.


but I disagree that you have as much of an 'option' in the U.S. as you imply.
Many jobs you don't really get to say, "Oh yeah, and I want to make a little less money and have 5 weeks off per year."


So, for those who WANT the extra time, it is better to have the govt force the companies to give that time.
Because in most of the U.S. such a 'choice' really doesn't exist. You either deal with very little vacation time or you simply don't get hired in the first place.

[DesertCat]

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So, for those who WANT the extra time, it is better to have the govt force the companies to give that time.
Because in most of the U.S. such a 'choice' really doesn't exist. You either deal with very little vacation time or you simply don't get hired in the first place.

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Sure, you have career choices. You can be self employed (consultant), run your own small business, or you can be a teacher And most small businesses I have worked at are very flexible about extra time off, it's frequently negotiable (but you aren't likely to get paid for it).

But you simply can't simultaneously maximize your earnings and your free time, in any system. And europe's stifling job laws have had a real negative effect on their net worth. And that contributes to fewer choices and less freedom in the long run. They have systemic unemployment problems.

The laws are so restrictive that you can't hire a full time employee without committing to employ them for life. I helped run an american software company that consciously limited it's hires in our european subsidaries to ensure we would be stuck paying massive buyouts to get rid of employees.

In france to address this a few years ago they proposed allowing business to hire young people on a less permanent commitment, to get business motivated to hire more people. The youth of france rioted and the proposal was squashed.

[MicroBob]

interesting stuff, much of with I'm not familiar with.

Yes, you do have options as to where to work in the U.S.

But I maintain that for many Americans in many fields they really might be closer to having no other realistic option besides 'very little vacation time with better pay' almost as much as a European has no choice but to accept 'more vacation time with less pay'.

Working from home/computer (telecommuting) may be changing that somewhat though for many Americans who are interested in not putting in 50+ hour work-weeks.

[RoundTower]

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20 and 25 are multiples of five, 21 is a little odd but at least a multiple of seven, but why do Spain and Portugal give 22 days? 22?!

[/ QUOTE ]3 weeks + 1 for running of the JEW

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[cbloom]

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The laws are so restrictive that you can't hire a full time employee without committing to employ them for life. I helped run an american software company that consciously limited it's hires in our european subsidaries to ensure we would be stuck paying massive buyouts to get rid of employees.


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You're conflating European laws that are very harmful and those that aren't. Requiring 20 days off probably has little to no effect on the health of European economies. You are totally right that the restriction on firing is a major problem that has hurt competetiveness a lot. In a healthy economy you need to be able to hire & fire workers as needed.

[ShakeZula06]

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There's a big difference between socially liberal and "big government"/socialism liberal.

There are lots of people who are socially liberal but not economically here in the US.

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They are called libertarians. And we're really sick of both parties.

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And you're mostly completely out of your [censored] minds. Good representation there.

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Wha? Why?

[illuminati]

i have 8 tabled and i hate poker when i do. 4-6 is my max now, it's a lot more relaxed, reads are better and i enjoy playing as opposed to being in a frantic rush to play each and not having a second to think about anything else.