"...People in America working 50 of 52 weeks a year which is pretty miserable" - Richard Branson <object id="cnbcplayer" height="380" width="400" classid="clsid27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" > <param name="type" value="application/x-shockwave-flash"/> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/> <param name="quality" value="best"/> <param name="scale" value="noscale" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"/> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"/> <param name="salign" value="lt"/> <param name="movie" value="http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/3000045086/code/cnbcplayershare"/> <embed name="cnbcplayer" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" bgcolor="#000000" height="380" width="400" quality="best" wmode="transparent" scale="noscale" salign="lt" src="http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/3000045086/code/cnbcplayershare" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" /> </object>
Thats something I never understood about the US economy and I already mentioned it here. How can you have an economy 70% based on consumption with only 2 weeks of holiday a year?
It all boils down to whether you are in a job or run a business in a field that you are both good at and actually enjoy. There is nothing quite as miserable as working in a job where you dread getting up in the morning and celebrate Friday's as if you are getting out of prison. It's even more depressing working around a bunch of "jobbers" who have adopted this mindset and infect everyone around them with their laziness and lack of passion for the task at hand. Most entrepreneurs don't even consider "vacation time" since their business is their life. In most cases, these are some of the more satisfied people even though they probably work twice as hard as alot of the jobbers. I suppose that's because it isn't "work" to people who enjoy what they are doing.
I don't think many Eurozone countries percentage of consumption stands at 70% but I don't think that is the case for the US anymore either really. I have come across some countries numbers over time but to link you to the excact numbers I can't.
Extremely hard for me to believe. 90% of this list has a very reasonable standard of living, when the Human Index is taken into consideration. It is the oil rich European nations that are doing great, e.g., Norway.
Actually, I think working the long hours with little free-time is probably one of the causes of our high-consumption society. People without a lot of leisure time, try to find pleasure in consumption instead in the hopes that it will increase the value of what little leisure time they do have. This probably causes a bit of a positive feedback loop, as the greater consumption leads to the requirement to work even more, and enjoy less leisure.