Many businessmen are not going to agree with
me on "vacation" being an issue at all! Too
bad, I consider myself a businessman. But of a different kind, ...
that kind of person who has 20/20 sight, a brain over the shoulders, and a
heart in the chest! Like the Japanese and Koreans, we
work really hard, as if "it is no going to be a tomorrow". Many
workers do not accrued vacations at all, and those who do, they enjoy one week
on the first year, and two weeks from there after. For
those many who have to switch jobs constantly, they will never see much of a
vacation at all. They really do not know what to spend quality time
with their family means. Some of those who are entitled to take a
couple of weeks off, sometimes opt for getting paid extra, and work during those
days. A social calamity of huge proportions. I know bad habits die
hard, despite of being harmful to our health. Just think of
disorders such as smoking, heavy drinking, or obsessive eating. For
me (a person who has grown up in a poor European country during the 1950's and
60's, and yet we had almost a month of vacation from the first year) allowing
the workforce not being entitled to vacation time -under whatever excuse- is one
of the biggest social crimes that can ever be committed. |
Most
European countries compel employers to offer somewhere from 4 to 8 weeks of paid
vacations.
How they can do it?
It is not as costly as you might think, it is a matter of will!
When
people have vacations they do not go underground. They just rest and keep
on living. And living they do. They go to the countryside to spend
time with relatives reinforcing their bonding, they go to resorts and put money
into the tourism industry. They slack back and enjoy their passions, being
it writing a book, listening to music, taking the children to parks, ...People
come back to work -a month or two later- refreshed and relaxed.
They will
live longer as well, and will have better health and less visits to the doctor. |
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Do
we save a lot in America by being stingy on vacations?
If you look only to the tip of the iceberg it is quite obvious that there is
a tangible cost to corporations when people are entitled to long vacations.
No need to lie about it. We all know that! However, by
avoiding vacations the society will be creating many intangible social costs
that you will not obviously see. Here is where you need to use your
gray matter. It is the part of the iceberg that is hidden below the water,
but this part is a lot bigger than the one over water. When you look at
international statistics, and compare countries, then you realize that America
is not Utopia, by far. Teenagers are left on their own, and we have
the highest rate of teenager's
pregnancies and abortions
in the Western world. Lacking ample time to spend with friends and
develop solid bonding, many other teenagers in America opt for quick ways to
get high, and high they get! Can you put a cost to drug
abuse, abused children, drunken-driving
victims, social costs of broken
marriages (with plenty of overworked spouses we sport the highest rate of
divorces in the Western world), ... the list is endless! Can
I be so wrong that this is not a national problem at all? Could
it be that all this need for vacations is just the wrong perception by a foreign-born
American, who might not have the best attitude toward work? Now
-I ask you- Could it be that you
are so immersed in business affairs that you do not see the needs of your
family, or the social needs of your employees? Satisfying
the "Employee's social needs" means to you: a day of partying -and
boozing- at the office? Don't you think
that if people could have more time to spend with their friends -and relatives-
in a relaxing atmosphere, there would be greater bonding among those families,
and within the members of a family? Can
you measure the social benefits of doing that? And even if you can not
measure the benefits, would you agree -at least- that there has to be a lot of
social benefits coming from it? Don't
you think that many marriages that end in divorce could have been saved if the
spouses had more time to spend together, in a resort, or in the good company of
their dearest family members? Instead of both arriving home every day
tired, exhausted, and that would be the way for "secula-seculorum" (as
we used to say in Latin). |
Definitely
we have a lack of leadership in this great country of us.
Elections are tight, every Politician needs all the votes they can get, and can
not afford to antagonized any major voting block. Listen!
Go to vote, it is your duty! But, you
owe it to yourself not to vote for those candidates who are hidden in the
closet!. , Please, vote only for those candidates who have
come out clear, and have published their views for all you to see.
If
you know nothing about a candidate, do me a favor, do not vote
for him/her !! Of course, you do not have to give
them your vote if you do not agree with them. But even if you do not
agree 100% with a candidate, give him/her credit for having the guts to spell
his/her positions. Today,
any candidate who cares to be honest with his constituents
can have a website (or any other mean of advertising) where he can make public
his positions on issues. If he does not do that, and instead is
"playing it safe" by not saying much, or being ambivalent, PLEASE,
DO NOT WASTE YOUR VOTE TO THAT MEDIOCRE ! We need
leaders. We already have plenty of political chameleons, who change color as the
need appears. |
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Would you like to
vacation in Europe or Asia, ... traveling there by car?
For more on that, visit the "Bering
Tunnel" page (<-clicking the link). You
will see why I ask you to do that!
When clicking a button takes you to my other political
website ("progress of campaign" at www.Xuna.com
, please remember to come back to www.Gr8St8.com
by clicking the "page back" button of your browser. Thanks!
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