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> Mexico has 12 weeks. And Greece has 40. And Sweden has 480 days. Poland 1 year. Switzerland 20 weeks. Ireland 26 weeks. UK 52 weeks. Canada 50 weeks. Norway
by ajuc 5y ago
> Mexico has 12 weeks. And Greece has 40.
And Sweden has 480 days. Poland 1 year. Switzerland 20 weeks. Ireland 26 weeks. UK 52 weeks. Canada 50 weeks. Norway 12 months. Denmark 52 weeks. France 16 weeks for mothers and 4 weeks for fathers. I can go on. There's 120 such countries in the world.
BTW that leave is on top of 20-30 days of paid vacations each year and unlimited paid health leave in most of these countries.
Notice that most of these also have free healthcare and free or cheap university education. Which is also "impossible" apparently :)
Also notice that some of these countries have higher or similar GDP per capita to USA. Also ALL of the countries I mentioned have lower gender salary gap than USA. And most of them have higher women workforce participation.
Somehow the argument used against paid parental leave turns out to work in favor of it :)
If you choose to ignore almost all developed countries other than USA (that have 20 weeks or more of paid paternity leave ) and cherry-pick Mexico as your counterexample - you should at least be aware what you're doing. You are searching for excuses to keep your ideological delusions going.
This isn't complicated, it works everywhere it's been tried, it's a simple change, the costs are marginal compared to benefits, even countries with GDP per capita one tenth of USA can afford it.
You sound exactly like this: "8-hour work week can't be done, the argument that other countries do it means nothing - in USA it won't work. I prefer to work 12 hours a day 6 days a week in USA than to work 8 hours in Wenezuela after all".
- m_ke 5y agoIt's always amusing to hear Americans act like basic social programs are impossible to implement as if they're living in a vacuum. I usually have to show them these charts: https://mobile.twitter.com/michalwols/status/1454894191486685184 https://mobile.twitter.com/michalwols/status/145489419148668... or a comparison of cost of education/healthcare and ask them to explain why America is the only country that can't do it.
- tomp 5y ago> Also notice that some of these countries have higher or similar GDP per capita to USA. In the US, households have 10% more money than the second closest competitor (Luxembourg), and 20% more money than next closest (Germany & Switzerland). I think that's a much better comparison than GDP (which isn't necessarily connected with employment), and shows how these tradeoffs work. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c...
- Clubber 5y agoYou're looking at the mean which includes billionaire disposable income. Look at the median for a more realistic picture (scroll down 1 grid).
- tomp 5y agoI doubt many billionaires have income. Although you're partially right, I'm not sure which is a better metric. Probably depends on where in the distribution you are (above or below the median).
- Clubber 5y ago>I doubt many billionaires have income. Realized capital gains, dividend income, income on rents. I'm not sure how the calculate disposable income. If I have 200M in stock that I could sell, is that considered disposable income? If I earn 2M in dividends that I reinvest, is that considered disposable?
- baq 5y agofor this exercise, I'd consider 'loans against equity' to be disposable income.
- ivan_gammel 5y agoIn Germany a person with median income will have access to free healthcare and education, good public transportation system and maybe even to an apartment with controlled rent. After you subtract all those expenses you may find that people in Germany may have more money in the pocket than in the USA. Anecdotal evidence does not prove anything, but few Americans who moved to Berlin were actually telling me that despite lower income and higher taxes they have more money here.