Do I envy the Europeans, sure. I remember going on my honeymoon - first true vacation I had taken since graduating from college 2 years earlier - and talking with a lovely French couple who were in California as their "second" vacation of the year, having already spent 2 weeks in Southern Spain.

But now I work in high tech and see our true global competitors - the Indians and Chinese - regularly going several days without sleep to dominate at the global market. Europe is going to be left completely in the dust within 20-30 years, and even at our current "breakneck" pace so will America.

The Chinese and Indians employers can not work their employees insane hours forever. Eventually, and I think sooner rather than latter, the employees will start to organize as they see the fruits of their labor go to other people. Even if adequately paid, what is the point if you never have time to enjoy it.

"But now I work in high tech and see our true global competitors - the Indians and Chinese - regularly going several days without sleep to dominate at the global market."

Just because workers in emerging countries are worked long hours without pay, (or sleep), doesn't mean that this is the ideal. The US is supposed to be more enlighten than to subscribe to "sweatshop labor" as the ideal standard.

"Europe is going to be left completely in the dust within 20-30 years, and even at our current "breakneck" pace so will America."

Supposition and an opinion I don't agree with. In the end, however, it makes no sense to "win" at the cost of your entire personal life. Even with overtime, is it really worth it to sacrifice your life for your boss? Do you think Microsoft, (or, for that matter, Google), really cares or values the drone who is willing to sacrifice his whole life so that Microsoft's shareholders and executives can be that much wealthier? They don't. To think that they do is delusional.

According to an article in the online edition of the New York Times, Japanese "salarymen" are beginning to sue their employers as a result their employers exploiting them, (particularly unpaid overtime). In a society that based entirely with 'go along to get along.' Personally, I think this is an indication the pendulum will swing the other way...

What, exactly, do you mean by Europe being "left in the dust within 20-30 years"?  Does "left in the dust" mean that they won't have all the gadgets and trinkets and other junk that Americans accumulate but never have the time to enjoy (probably even less time because they have to maintain all those gadgets)?  Actually, "enjoy" is the wrong word.  "Preoccupy" is more accurate.

Europeans may not have all the toys, but what they have is more time.  Time to spend with their loved ones, to go on long vacations, to simply live.  You can work 60-80 hour weeks to get yourself that big SUV, but what you lose is your life.  I don't buy the saying that time is money.  Time is LIFE.

What, exactly, do you mean by Europe being "left in the dust within 20-30 years"?  Does "left in the dust" mean that they won't have all the gadgets and trinkets and other junk that Americans accumulate but never have the time to enjoy (probably even less time because they have to maintain all those gadgets)?  Actually, "enjoy" is the wrong word.  "Preoccupy" is more accurate.

Europeans may not have all the toys, but what they have is more time.  Time to spend with their loved ones, to go on long vacations, to simply live.  You can work 60-80 hour weeks to get yourself that big SUV, but what you lose is your life.  I don't buy the saying that time is money.  Time is LIFE.

What jdzapa means by being 'left in the dust' is that the US is quickly moving from a product producing based economy to a service provider based economy. In that sense we no longer compete with Britan, France or Germany in the Global Market place, which each country being cited in this article as to having superior PTO benefits. Rather we compete against countries and nations have little or no vacation or paid time of benefits for its employees. Sure, labor pratices in India or China maybe reprehensible to us in the western world and it's fair to say that it's not very good for their respective work forces, but that's not the point. The point is that businesses and corporations in India and China have a vastly greater -- and some cases better educated -- labor pool to chose from than the US does. And they work for a fraction of the cost that we do. When a software engineer in India gets burned out and decides to move on Wiproo Infotech doesn't fret it -- it just hires another one for the same salary. Afterall, when your based in a country that churns out 1 MILLION engineers a year, you can afford to do that...

you got it right

First, competing with India and China, where workers consistently lose sleep, etc., creates a vicious circle, where people and nations are forced to "race to the bottom." This is why international worker rights, and fair trade are needed, and why trade can't be fair without adequate safeguards for all employees across the globe, or at least an import tax on countries that devalue their populace so. Secondly, people seem to forget the point of industrialization and "progress." The point of progress isn't to chain you to your desk, it is to make your life better, which necessarily requires time spent with family, and should (I believe) include leisure time (both presently missing in our economy). The fact that family time is even being suggested as a liability necessarily shows how out of wack our system is.

To conclude, it is time for the freedom of contract, as it pertains to white collar or salaried employees, to be further limited as was done in the early 1900's for hourly-waged employees. It is obvious that on a personal level, no employee feels able to set limits on the number of hours they will contract away, to feel secure in a job, whether paid hourly or by salary. "Progress" is a word with meaning, and I suggest that people re-think what that word means to them, and whether their fancy blackberry (a sign of progress - technology) is really progress at all, it appears that such progress only results in lonely and failed marriages, parentless households, missed childhood and a life without the freedom of idle time.

I agree ! When I said "good post", I was responding to a poster that agreed with you too. Your statement that trade can't be free or fair if everyone is not playing by the same rules is correct and wise. We need to build worker rights into WTO, NAFTA, contactor agreements with the gov , etc, then everyone can compete within the rules.

Have hope. First the Chinese and the Indians are already experiencing skilled labor shortages that are forcing them to be more considerate of their labor. Second the best Indian and Chinese engineers aren't in China or India they are here. Actually a couple are right down the hall from me. They are smart and hardworking and I am damn sure glad that they are here. Also I don't think some of you understand the stakes here. As the world leader in technology America gets paid a monopoly premium. That is when we release new technology we can charge monopoly prices because no one can compete. If we lose this edge it will make a big hit because someone else will get that advantage.

So you are saying that the USA is gradually transforming from a high-wage into a low-wage country?

The amount of vacation time alotted in other industrialized countries is not a new thing. Neither is there unemployment rates. France: 7.5% Germany and Spain > 8%. Do I think that we work too hard in this country.... perhaps. Is more required paid vacation the answer... not sure if it means unemployment rate goes up to levels common in Europe.

Asian and Eastern economies = live to work

European economies = work to live

US = somewhere in between, although our heritage and mindset is very much the former.

It can and will change. As economies mature labor inevitably demands more of the fruits of economic success. First it's money, then toys. Eventually it's leisure time.

Re: "The Chinese and Indians employers can not work their employees insane hours forever."

Yes, they can. With one billion + each, ther will be a long supply of replacements when the first ones drop.

And in the US, American workers (especially the "information workers") know that they can be replaced with a Chinese or Indian thinker in about a day as well.

One of my former manaers, when asked for a raise by one of his employees, took him over to a map of China and asked him to pick the city where his job wold be outsourced to if he became too expensive to keep.

In that kind of climate, what sort of "leverage" do you really believe those who work ofr a living actually have?

On another post here about working for "trinkets". Does that poster mean "trinkets" such as:

Health Care?

Gasoline for their car, in order to get to work?

Payments on their college loans?

Food?

"Trinkets" like those?

Philadelphia Steve:

Re: "The Chinese and Indians employers can not work their employees insane hours forever."

Yes, they can. With one billion + each, ther will be a long supply of replacements when the first ones drop.

That's the same mistake the factory owners made during the industrial revolution; that there would always be more workers to toss into the meatgrinder.

So they kept pushing until the labor movement and, yes, communism came about because people got pissed because of they way they got treated.

Indians and Chinese are different but they're not robots.

Philadelphia Steve:

And in the US, American workers (especially the "information workers") know that they can be replaced with a Chinese or Indian thinker in about a day as well.

One of my former manaers, when asked for a raise by one of his employees, took him over to a map of China and asked him to pick the city where his job wold be outsourced to if he became too expensive to keep.

That's the problem right there; shit management. As someone in middle management, that hamfisted, ignorant asshole approach has always pissed me off.

First, cheap doesn't mean better. Indian and Asian cultures don't teach creative approaches to problem-solving and open communication is the workplace; it's rote learning/thinking and an almost militarisatic workplace, with how hierarchial it is.

Second, their colleges are not as good (less funding, fewer resources, less openness). There's a reason why they send their best and brightest here for education and when, seeing that the grass really is greener over here, often stay here to work.

Third, I can't be the only guy who knows about Henry Ford's approach to management and labor relations; enlightened self interest.

Henry Ford was an asshole who spoke favorably of Mr. Hitler pre 1938. But he instituted the 40 hour work week, benefits, vacations, and better working conditions for his employees.

Why?

Because he knew that the people who were getting treated like slaves fucking hated their jobs, their managers, and corporations; had no loyalty to the company to suggest new ideas or motivation to work hard since they knew they'd be at work so long, they slowed waaaaay down or were just physically and mentally burnt out it's all they could do.

In a fantastic example of counterintuitive reasoning, Mr. Ford realized that, sometimes, the fewer hours you work, the more productive you are and the more work you get done. 40 x 2 > 80 x .45.