When I left California, I had 2 weeks vacation. When I arrived in Paris, I had 7 weeks vacation, standard for employees. All employees get the month of August off. It is too hot to work. I am a frail human being, I took the full 7 weeks off.
When I left California, I was paid for 12 months work. When I arrived in Paris, I was paid for 13 months work. All employees of French companies get paid an extra month, called a bonus, whether the company can afford it or not. I am a frail human being, I kept the bonus.
We had too many employees in one of our offices for the work level. I recommended some layoffs. No can do, Mr. Sherwood from America, I was told because the severance pay for layoffs is prohibitive. It is cheaper to pay people to show up and look like they are busy than to pay the government required severance. We never laid any one off. Entitlements from bonuses to vacations are addictive, easy to accept and hard to give up. However, like a huge stone you can push it up hill, but you need to be careful that it does not roll back and crush you.
Now some things have no doubt changed, but clearly in the direction of more entitlements, rather than enlightenments, hence Age of Entitlements. The circle does go full and Greece's problems today may merely be foreshadowing of America's problems tomorrow. Some liberal commentators label republican policies as social Darwinism, a continued winnowing of the population based on capability rather than need.
I frankly do not see cutting taxes on dividends or anything else is winnowing of any kind with the possible exception of government revenues. You can be sure that raising taxes on the rich or anyone will not go to reducing the debt, as is often proffered by Obama; it will however be used to leverage additional debt, for you novice-economists that means to borrow more, which increases the debt.
The republicans were also branded with the killing women's rights moniker. The republicans characterized as against allowing a women to choose abortion, regardless of reason. As a result, single women tended to vote for Obama and married women tended to support Romney. If I was a single women, I am reasonably sure that I would prefer the abortion option over having a baby created from incest or rape. What I do not understand is how the republicans were branded with denying this option to women. Republican and democratic presidents must follow the law, not their religious convictions.
One last point. There was a day when Americans loved Horatio Alger stories. Rags to riches was admired. Thousands of libraries, museums, schools and non-profit institutions are glowing examples of the Horatio Alger's of America using their private wealth to put Americans to work and create marvelous public institutions. We do not teach those stories in many schools and as a result we have produced a generation of wealth distrust. Romney, for example, must be a crook because many people believe you have to cheat and scam the system to get rich.
I am not finished with this subject, but that is all for today.
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