Friday, July 13, 2007

Go to the beach!

The National Review is no fan of European welfare states, or of the American labor movement, and that's putting it mildly. Yet the East coast heat wave must be getting to the economist Kevin A. Hassett, a frequent contributor. In the mag's July 9 issue, he waxes positively envious [subscribers only] about European vacation policies -- not to mention the European ability to forget about their jobs when they aren't at them. At cocktail parties in the nations that conservatives were so recently deriding as "Old Europe," Hassett writes, "No one talks about work." (Hassett even has a few nice words to say about European "potables," the subject of boycotts not so long ago.)

Hassett presents the now-familiar chart showing just how stingy American vacation policies are: We get 13 or so vacation days annually, while the French are closing in on 40 -- a figure the Italians have already surpassed. Okay, they're Italians. But those hard-working Japanese? Surely they work harder than us? Nope: A full thirty vacation days a year.

Worse, Hassett writes, according to a recent survey by Expedia.com (not a red-check source, perhaps), Americans fail to take an average of three of the vacation days they are granted annually -- a phenomenon unheard of in other countries.

"Even though Americans have the fewest vacation days, they leave the most on the table," Hassett writes. He stops short of challenging corporate policies that limit American workers' time off -- what were you expecting? -- but implies that rock-ribbed conservatives and liberals alike can get behind the idea that you should take full advantage of the few vacation days that you have.

Posted by Christopher Shea at 05:45 PM

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