Quote for the day -- work
"I can recall the 80s-era campaign to elasticize the 40-hour work week. For the most part, that campaign originated with a handful of Silicon Valley Randroids who were, at the time, considered very clever and very hip. The buzz word, then, was 'excellence.' And now? Now, America is not known for the excellence of its products or institutions. Germany is. In the words of the Sham-Wow guy: "They always make good stuff." Germany has prospered by specializing in high-end manufactured goods. And Germany has long had a 35 hour work week. Germans also get at least a month of paid vacay every year. We could be living like that, if not for the libertarians."
Joseph Cannon
And this is a must-read.
Joseph Cannon
And this is a must-read.
posted by Infidel753 at 11:08 AM
3 Comments:
I had an interesting discussion regarding public medical care with a professor friend from Germany now working/living here. I made the comment that many Americans would dismiss as "Socialism" Germany's ability to provide comprehensive medical care to their population. He took exception to this stating that Germany's form of government was not any form of Socialism.
Sure enough I looked at the CIA World Factbook: Germany's form of government is listed as "federal republic". To compare I checked the Factbook with reference to the USA - "Constitution-based federal republic"!!
It made me wonder what Germany has that we don't have? Maybe an educated public, maybe low regard for religion, maybe a sense of unity and cooperation rather than you're-on-you-own rugged individualism? Rhetorical questions... but perhaps worth considering.
Well, of course socialism is a set of economic policies, not a form of government. You could have socialism under a republic, under a dictatorship, or whatever, just as you could have capitalism or communism under any form of government.
Germany is a federal republic, and is certainly socialist. It does also have a much better level of education than the US does, and is much less religious.
When I was at Danao Adventure Park in the Philippines this past summer, there was this big sign on the grounds that read "Your Caving Pays for Socialized Health Care", in other words, the fees you pay to cave or other activities there go to the local government that owns the facility.
I could just picture the reactions if there was a sign like that in say Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. "Wut's that, soshulizm? Why I'm never coming to this place agin'!"
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