WHAT? Does that count sick days as well, or is that a myth?
Here in Germany, I get 30 vacation days per calendar year, plus any sick days, and thats fairly normal.
Edit: Sure the absolute salaries here are lower, but the cost of living is vastly different and the social support structures and healthcare are different, too. That should definitely be kept in mind.
I dont need to drive my car a lot, because my city is fully walkable/bikeable, and thats not a super rare thing here. There are a lot of factors.
I feel vacation days are just a basic requirement for happiness, whereas being rich maybe isnt
I live in a big European city. You basically don't need a car - pretty much anything within the city is reachable in about 30min, and public transit is comfy.
Also, I have a public transit ticket that allows me to travel the entire country for a year, which only cost about 1000€.
Yes, salaries are lower, but I also don't have to save anything to get my kids through university, or keep emergency funds for health issues.
Also, I can't just get fired without cause. And if I do get laid off, I have 3 months of grace period, plus potentially years of unemployment money.
Also, the government even pays for certain courses so I can find employment again.
The social system in Europe is amazing.
But then again, you don't blow half your salary in health care, don't risk having to claim for bankruptcy every time you get in an ambulance, you have access to the highest quality of education for basically free, and many others. You are also in an incredibly privileged job. In the real world, the US has a higher poverty rate than Germany does.
>you'll be working right up until our government mandated retirement age
So will most americans. And many of them will keep working past that age, because their pensions does not afford them basic living conditions. Just because you work in an extremely privileged sector where some of us can retire at 40 and do cocaine all day long doesn't mean the rest of the world can. Have some empathy.
>Our economic growth across the EU is stagnant.
growth growth growth must growth growth good growth necessary. This is the behaviour of cancer, not of an organised society.
>These are not things to be celebrated.
If you are unable to see anywhere past 5 meters in front of you and half an hour in time, indeed. For anyone with an inkling of reason an empathy, Germany is, objectively, a better place to live in in average than the US. And this is coming from a neighbour that can find plenty of reasons to shit on Germany.