Take Back Your Time Movement

[Think Different]

Sounds like an interesting US-Canadian group. They're trying to wake North Americans up to the fact that we've lost sight of balance in our lives, and that it's not all just about working ourselves to death or getting rich. They want to start with guaranteeing a minimum level of paid vacation for all Americans, and move on from there. The US spends twice as much as the average European country on health care per person, but the American quality of health is lower than any developed nation. Our pace of life and loss of focus on family and friends is also causing us to live shorter lives. I guess the old US bumpersticker "Whoever dies with the most toys, wins!" is true.

http://www.youtube.com/takebackyourtime

[gsjackson]

I can't tell you how many millions of dollars the US Chamber of Commerce and its clients will spend to defeat any mandatory vacation bill. "Squeeze labor" has been the mantra of American business since a Nixon administration figure articulated it as policy 40 years ago. We have a crappy quality of life in part because it helps a few people at the tippy top become fabulously wealthy.

[Think Different]

I can't tell you how many millions of dollars the US Chamber of Commerce and its clients will spend to defeat any mandatory vacation bill. "Squeeze labor" has been the mantra of American business since a Nixon administration figure articulated it as policy 40 years ago. We have a crappy quality of life in part because it helps a few people at the tippy top become fabulously wealthy.

To your point, look at these two comments from viewers at that YouTube page:


"The 'system' we live under (and who and what is the system?) wants rats on the wheel, so busy they have no time to Think or Feel, let alone get a chance to figure out how on earth to get off the wheel."


"I think the "burnout" model often has to do with another goal of employers: to turnover employees before they start accumulating wothwhile [sic] benefits such as vacation time."

I wonder when the "rats" will tire of the rat race and take back our country. I'd like to think that this terrible economy will help people refocus on what's really important in life, and demand we return to a better society that we use to have in the past. Unfortunately, if jobs ever return, people will be so desperate to get back into the workforce that they'll prefer to be even bigger slaves to the corporate machine than they have been. Basically, America has been bought and sold by mega corporations and it's only going to get worse in the future.

[gsjackson]

I think the second youtube point is especially apt. Employers emphatically do not want to create a middle class, with living wages, benefits and the political will to protect them. So they either burn employees out or simply export their jobs overseas, and when they need new employees they just hire immigrants or young kids who have no political consciousness and are just happy to have a job. Henry Ford's insight that he needed to create a middle class by paying his workers enough to afford his cars is long gone.

Wall Street sees labor costs being kept down, bids up the price of the company's stock, executives cash out their stock options, and the game continues apace for the happy few. While the U.S. steadily turns into a third world country economically, with a small ruling class and an enormous underclass to serve them.

[Think Different]

@gsjackson, do you see any way to turn this around and to turn America back into the great country it once was? Or, is the best choice for thinking Americans to just get the hell out of dodge and find a better life overseas (which I'm doing, anyway). Most Americans would say it's "patriotic" to stick around here, suffer like a dog and somehow scrape out a living with no hope for a better future. They say that's the "noble" thing to do. Personally, I don't see it that way and it has nothing to do with misplaced patriotism. It has to do with providing a safe and happier future for my family. Just wondering what others think.

[Think Different]

"I think the "burnout" model often has to do with another goal of employers: to turnover employees before they start accumulating wothwhile [sic] benefits such as vacation time."

This is a fundamental error in the modern American system of labor: all employee benefits come through your employer (if you're lucky). With the exception of the federal gov't employees and the military, who get their own separate excellent/excessive benefits, most Americans have to do with losing accumulated sick leave or vacation time, when they leave or are laid off from a company. These benefit costs are borne by the companies, which do not want to provide them in the first place, and now that the economy is in the crapper and people are desperate for work, companies have us by the balls.

In Europe and most other developed nations, benefits are received through the government directly and not through companies. In this way, if a person loses their job, changes jobs, goes into business for themselves, etc. they continue to receive their benefits (i.e. they are portable). Right-wing nuts will argue that this is "socialism" and not good for America, however this is not socialism. This is an example of governments that understand the value of investing time and resources into their own country and citizens' well-being, so that they remain productive and happy members of society. How many West Europeans do you see knocking down the door of the US, trying to become an American? Very few...Ironically, the US government employees and particularly the military likes to mock "European socialism", but the fact is the benefits that govvies and military personnel get (and no one else gets) is the closest thing we have to the same "European socialist" model they are mocking. That's called being a friggin' hypocrite!

I think the way a government treats its citizens says a great deal about the country's priorities and values (or lack thereof). Our government prefers to keep the money and good jobs at the top for the elitists, or wrapped up in endless, mindless wars (we just bombed Libya the other day...that makes 3 wars simultaneously), and feeding the military-industrial complex (President Eisenhower warned us about that, BTW).

[momopi]

There was a time, when long distance phone calls were expensive, and people communicated by hand-written letters. The letters were lengthy, personal, and people spent a lot of time reading, thinking about, and writing them. I recall back in high school, when the foreign exchange girls went home, we'd spend time writing back and forth for a year or two, before moving on in college. The last time that I sat down and spent considerably effort in writing personal letters, was 12 years ago to an ex-GF who moved to Japan. After that relationship, long-distance communications turned into instant messaging, skype, and short text messages.

Technology advances has given us the capability of cheap instant communication. If my client has a problem with his/her PC, I can remote access their computer and fix it from my bed. My company's CEO lives about 400 miles away from the office, and only comes in every other week. But he's accessible on his smartphone 24/7. At 11PM he could be sending me an e-mail from China factory asking for a translation. He could be in his PJ's eating a cookie, but he's working and must respond to what's happening overseas regardless of the time difference.

Often, there's a "price" that you must pay for the convenience or benefit, think of it as "no free lunch". I don't "work" 8 hours/day & 40 hours/week. This week I think I spent half the week playing God of War on my PSP sitting in an airport or flying on the plane. But my work week bleeds into Saturday, and I get paid less than my previous job. In France they have mandatory 25 day paid vacation per year, but their workers also make about 30% less. If you asked an American union worker who gets ~15 paid vacation days per year, if he'd accept an additional 15 days in exchange for a 30% pay cut, I thin he's going to say hell no. The average size of an American house was 983 sq ft in 1950. By 2006 it had grew to 2,430 sq ft for new construction SFR's. Someone's gotta pay for that increased construction cost.

[gsjackson]

@gsjackson, do you see any way to turn this around and to turn America back into the great country it once was? Or, is the best choice for thinking Americans to just get the hell out of dodge and find a better life overseas (which I'm doing, anyway). Most Americans would say it's "patriotic" to stick around here, suffer like a dog and somehow scrape out a living with no hope for a better future. They say that's the "noble" thing to do. Personally, I don't see it that way and it has nothing to do with misplaced patriotism. It has to do with providing a safe and happier future for my family. Just wondering what others think.

No, I don't see any grounds for optimism, maybe because I teach American college students and all I see is a big tidal wave of stupid coming along. Look at the minds and the bodies of American people, and tell me if you think these people have a future. You could have vast procedural changes -- and to me the first one has to be taking money out of our politics, but the SCt has just made that all but impossible -- and you'd still have the same raw material of humankind that would have to make the system work. We're toast. Expatriating is the only viable option that I can see, unless you're prepared to be thoroughly dishonest with yourself.

[Think Different]

@gsjackson: That's awesome that you're teaching at a college. Just curious, what do you teach?

BTW, just for the record, I'm not anti-military at all, and I do support our troops. My main problem with the military is the age-old one that I witnessed first-hand, being a contractor to the military for many years: officers trying to focus on promoting their political careers at the expense of being good soldiers first and foremost.

I gather from momopi's post that the implication is that we wouldn't have these wonderful modern gadgets if it were not for military R&D funding. To a certain extent I agree with that, but if you look at other countries that have developed great technology (after all, it didn't all come from the US), they funded R&D via other alternatives and not just military. Using the military as an avenue for civilian technology advancement is a roundabout way of doing it, if you ask me, and the hands of many politicians get greased in the process, as well.

My problem is the lopsided economy that promotes excessive and unnecessary military buildup at the expense of the rest of the national economy. Look at the former Soviet Union as an example of where that could lead, if taken to an extreme. Is it any wonder that the only place in the US where the economy is growing and jobs are good and well-paid is in the Washington, DC area, where so many of the government contracting companies are? That's my home turf, but you couldn't pay be enough to go back and live in that place. Talk about a life with no balance!

[gsjackson]

@gsjackson: That's awesome that you're teaching at a college. Just curious, what do you teach?

BTW, just for the record, I'm not anti-military at all, and I do support our troops. My main problem with the military is the age-old one that I witnessed first-hand, being a contractor to the military for many years: officers trying to focus on promoting their political careers at the expense of being good soldiers first and foremost.

I gather from momopi's post that the implication is that we wouldn't have these wonderful modern gadgets if it were not for military R&D funding. To a certain extent I agree with that, but if you look at other countries that have developed great technology (after all, it didn't all come from the US), they funded R&D via other alternatives and not just military. Using the military as an avenue for civilian technology advancement is a roundabout way of doing it, if you ask me, and the hands of many politicians get greased in the process, as well.

My problem is the lopsided economy that promotes excessive and unnecessary military buildup at the expense of the rest of the national economy. Look at the former Soviet Union as an example of where that could lead, if taken to an extreme. Is it any wonder that the only place in the US where the economy is growing and jobs are good and well-paid is in the Washington, DC area, where so many of the government contracting companies are? That's my home turf, but you couldn't pay be enough to go back and live in that place. Talk about a life with no balance!

I teach media studies at (a school I named originally, but should probably be more discreet, given how teachers are getting busted now for online comments) as adjunct faculty. I've taught at better schools -- Tulane and Wisconsin (where I got my PhD), and the students there were more willing to jump through the necessary hoops to make grades, but ultimately they were mindless also and cause for profound discouragement.

I started my working life by stumbling into the DOD world in D.C. also -- computer programmer for the Navy Dept back in the days of ancient mainframes, and logged time with the contractors as well. Defense spending is quite the massive boondoggle, and completely immune to the budget cutters' axe, for reasons that are explained very succinctly in a January Huffington Post piece by Andrew Bacevich titled Cow Most Sacred. Eisenhower's warning fell on deaf ears. My perspective isn't necessarily anti-military either. I grew up as an Air Force brat, loved the life, and between my father, mother and me we have served in all four branches of the Armed Services (I got my young butt into the Marine Reserves during Vietnam to avoid the draft). But this society has become dangerously militaristic, among many other problems.

[jamesbond]

I think the second youtube point is especially apt. Employers emphatically do not want to create a middle class, with living wages, benefits and the political will to protect them. So they either burn employees out or simply export their jobs overseas, and when they need new employees they just hire immigrants or young kids who have no political consciousness and are just happy to have a job. Henry Ford's insight that he needed to create a middle class by paying his workers enough to afford his cars is long gone.

Wall Street sees labor costs being kept down, bids up the price of the company's stock, executives cash out their stock options, and the game continues apace for the happy few. While the U.S. steadily turns into a third world country economically, with a small ruling class and an enormous underclass to serve them.

Most people HATE their jobs even most college graduates do. As a matter of fact, most college graduates are working at jobs that have nothing to do with their college degree! I heard on the news that a lot of college graduates are working in retail, fastfood and telemarketing jobs!

Americans are the most productive workers in the world and yet, they get the least amount of time off than any industrialized country in the world! WTF? People in most of Europe get 4 to 6 weeks paid vacation per year, starting with their first year of employment! In the US, 25% of workers get NO vacation time at all!

[jamesbond]

I can't tell you how many millions of dollars the US Chamber of Commerce and its clients will spend to defeat any mandatory vacation bill. "Squeeze labor" has been the mantra of American business since a Nixon administration figure articulated it as policy 40 years ago. We have a crappy quality of life in part because it helps a few people at the tippy top become fabulously wealthy.

There are more workaholics in the US than any country in the world! Employers want to "own" their employees and want complete loyalty however, employers are not loyal to their employees.

Job satisfaction for American workers is very low. Most people are stuck working in mind numbingly boring jobs (office jobs, retail jobs, etc.) The CEO gets paid an outrageous salary while the regular workers are living paycheck to paycheck. The gap between the rich and the middle class is bigger now than it's ever been!

It's funny when they do these surveys of "which countries have the best quality of life" the US is always near the bottom and a lot of European countries are at the top. I believe last year, France was number one for quality of life and some other Eurpean countries were up there too.

[momopi]

http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=LEVEL
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ ... -05-EN.PDF
http://www.eupedia.com/europe/maps_of_e ... oductivity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... our_worked

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_st ... by_country

[BellaRuth]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_st ... by_country

Oh my goodness! Is this real?

One thing that never fails to shock me is the lack of a free healthcare system in the States. I can't believe such a rich, developed country has no way to look after its poorest citizens. The idea of paying to give birth sounds crazy to me, and for someone who can't afford health insurance to potentially sit there with a serious disease, a broken limb, etc... in modern America? Disgusting.

It seems America is so paranoid of the slightest whiff of 'socialism' that they make sure they go right to the other extreme- dog eat dog.

[Think Different]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_st ... by_country

Oh my goodness! Is this real?

One thing that never fails to shock me is the lack of a free healthcare system in the States. I can't believe such a rich, developed country has no way to look after its poorest citizens. The idea of paying to give birth sounds crazy to me, and for someone who can't afford health insurance to potentially sit there with a serious disease, a broken limb, etc... in modern America? Disgusting.

It seems America is so paranoid of the slightest whiff of 'socialism' that they make sure they go right to the other extreme- dog eat dog.

Bella, you hit the nail on the head. IMHO America is good for two types of people: 1) those who are young, healthy, energetic, well-educated, and/or well-connected. 2) the masochist

If Americans knew how royally they are getting screwed by this kleptomaniacal corporatocracy, and how much better the rest of the developed world lives, we'd have massive rioting in the streets. The problem is that most Americans are kept in the dark and fed s*&t (the proverbial mushroom) all day by the media and have no clue what goes on beyond their borders. Those who maybe do understand are too busy frantically trying to survive to have any extra time and energy to do something about it, or to escape (or even figure out how to escape).

I always say that the American Colonies waged a war for independence from the British Crown over comparatively piddly tea taxes and "taxation without representation". The s&*t we put up with today from our government, politicians, Wall Street, and the corporations is 1000s of times worse than what we fought the war over 225 years ago (no hard feelings, by the way ) I think Britain (and the Canadians) are getting their sweet revenge on America now, by having a better quality of life than Americans have.