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I drink your milkshake! a metaphor for capitalism
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<blockquote data-quote="rickyb" data-source="post: 3517279" data-attributes="member: 56035"><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/american-worker-less-vacation-medieval-peasant-2016-11?IR=T" target="_blank">The average American worker takes less vacation time than a medieval peasant</a></p><p></p><p>Plowing and harvesting were backbreaking toil, but the peasant enjoyed anywhere from eight weeks to half the year off.</p><p></p><p>In fact, <a href="http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html" target="_blank"> economist Juliet Shor</a> found that during periods of particularly high wages, such as 14th-century England, peasants might put in no more than 150 days a year. As for the modern American worker? After a year on the job, she gets an average of <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ebs.t05.htm" target="_blank">eight vacation days</a> annually.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong> A history of dwindling vacation days </strong></span></p><p>It wasn't supposed to turn out this way: John Maynard Keynes, one of the founders of modern economics, made a famous <a href="http://money.howstuffworks.com/five-day-weekend2.htm" target="_blank">prediction</a> that by 2030, advanced societies would be wealthy enough that leisure time, rather than work, would characterize national lifestyles. So far, that forecast is not looking good.</p><p></p><p>When workers fought for the eight-hour workday, they weren't trying to get something radical and new, but rather to restore what their ancestors had enjoyed before industrial capitalists and the electric light bulb came on the scene.</p><p></p><p>Go back 200, 300, or 400 years and you find that most people did not work very long hours at all. In addition to relaxing during long holidays, the medieval peasant took his sweet time eating meals, and the day often included time for an afternoon snooze.</p><p></p><p>Some <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/no-vacation-nation-why-dont-americans-know-how-to-take-a-break/260759/" target="_blank"> blame the American worker</a> for not taking what is her due. But in a period of consistently high unemployment, job insecurity and weak labor unions, employees may feel no choice but to <strong>accept the conditions set by the culture and the individual employer.</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="rickyb, post: 3517279, member: 56035"] [URL='http://www.businessinsider.com/american-worker-less-vacation-medieval-peasant-2016-11?IR=T']The average American worker takes less vacation time than a medieval peasant[/URL] Plowing and harvesting were backbreaking toil, but the peasant enjoyed anywhere from eight weeks to half the year off. In fact, [URL='http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html'] economist Juliet Shor[/URL] found that during periods of particularly high wages, such as 14th-century England, peasants might put in no more than 150 days a year. As for the modern American worker? After a year on the job, she gets an average of [URL='http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ebs.t05.htm']eight vacation days[/URL] annually. [SIZE=5][B] A history of dwindling vacation days [/B][/SIZE] It wasn't supposed to turn out this way: John Maynard Keynes, one of the founders of modern economics, made a famous [URL='http://money.howstuffworks.com/five-day-weekend2.htm']prediction[/URL] that by 2030, advanced societies would be wealthy enough that leisure time, rather than work, would characterize national lifestyles. So far, that forecast is not looking good. When workers fought for the eight-hour workday, they weren't trying to get something radical and new, but rather to restore what their ancestors had enjoyed before industrial capitalists and the electric light bulb came on the scene. Go back 200, 300, or 400 years and you find that most people did not work very long hours at all. In addition to relaxing during long holidays, the medieval peasant took his sweet time eating meals, and the day often included time for an afternoon snooze. Some [URL='http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/no-vacation-nation-why-dont-americans-know-how-to-take-a-break/260759/'] blame the American worker[/URL] for not taking what is her due. But in a period of consistently high unemployment, job insecurity and weak labor unions, employees may feel no choice but to [B]accept the conditions set by the culture and the individual employer.[/B] [/QUOTE]
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