As a lifelong US citizen, the idea that for some reason, other citizens, via the government, should pay for me, or anyone, to not show up to work, doesn’t make any sense to me. How do other countries rationalize this idea?
1. Paid time off is paid for by the employer, not the government. It's part of the agreement to work, like a salary. It makes no sense to find it any more illogical than a salary. It's just a salary in a different form.
2. Even if it was paid by the government, there are reasons to rationalize welfare. You help everyone, because needing help isn't a moral failure, and we're a rich society so we can. Its like insurance... you might not think you'll get into a car accident (everyone thinks they're a good driver), but you still pay into insurance because when a bad day comes, you might not be able to afford it.
3. Income isn't closely tied to how hard people work, nor skill. We like to pretend it is, but it's not. Spreading a small amount of your income around to help others who aren't rewarded financial for their hard work, despite being a boost for society, helps everyone.
Also: Who thinks paid time off is bad? Why is this an opinion?
In Europe, most people would consider the American attitude towards work to be unhealthy.
Your life is more than your work, and everyone should have a certain amount of guaranteed time for themselves and their families. It's an absolute baseline that puts a limit on how bad the rat race can get.
Having seen both systems first-hand, the European attitude leads to a much better work-life balance on a societal level.
What are you smoking? A minimum wage puts a floor on what is needed to have an employee. Paying less than that is even worse than we have it now.
Where do you live that doesn't have fast food, restaurants, retail, and so on? Most of these 'skilless' jobs are minumum wage. You are advocating for entire sectors of people to be paid less (i.e. exploited further) based on the false notion that few people are paid minimum.
Yeah it's just something they all gathered together and decided to mutually fuck each other over and they enjoy their lives and each other more, have more free time, and have higher life expectancies for it. Immoral heathens, really.
Same way someone without children rationalizes child tax credits for people with children, or someone who didn't use public schools feels about paying taxes used for public schools used by others, or many such examples.
We collectively have decided that certain behaviors should be incentivised for general well being and basic quality of life for the population. If it's beneficial in the long run if the entire population isn't worked to burn out, and overall productivity is affected, I think a minimum PTO isn't that far fetched an idea.
How did you come to the conclusion that other citizens via the government should pay for you time off? Your employer needs to pay for it. It's not a welfare benefit.
