>--- snit snat <snitilicious at tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
>
> > Maybe life would be different. IF everyone used
> > public transportation,
> > bosses wouldn't expect you to stay late? Somehow, I
> > doubt it, but who the
> > hell knows.
>
>The local bus schedules in Europe often have intervals
>of a few minutes around rush hour. And working more
>than a town or two away is considered a real
>imposition.
>
>Plus in much of Europe I imagine employers would be in
>deep doo-doo if they made you stay late.
>
>Just some more of the intangibles that make life in
>the US kind of shocking if you recognize them....
I know. I had to laugh one day when I read a week long exchange on a list composed of quite a few Europeans. USers were shocked that they got so much time off and were finally forced to wonder WTF -- especially when I pointed out that our workholism doesn't really increase productivity. Of course, there were hardliners on board to make sure that everyone knew that Europe sucked, sucked, sucked. I swear, you'd have thought they were simply recycling stories of gray, drab, communist lives living in cramped apartments and waiting 2 hrs to buy a loaf of bread. That is, apparently, how bad it is in Europe --according to the cons. [1]
so I guess, phrased better, my question might be, well, I don't know
exactly. I really can't believe it's just because USers are more reptilian.
:) Obviously, it's structural things -- like a weak labor movement, a
commitment to individualism unaccompanied by anything much to mitigate the
way it ravages our psyches, a populace that doesn't think Joe Lieberman is
a raving Liberal, etc. etc.
Also, what do you mean when you say that working a town or two away is an imposition?
kelley
[1] I'd also note that, recently, a conservative explained that Europeans wouldn't be able to continue on as they do, with all the time off and the strong social safety net, because they had a high unemployment rate that could only be sustained by high levels of immigration. :) It just didn't occur to him how obviously screwed up his thinking was. The problem with the European system is a high unemployment rate.... Uh huh. And, apparently, if they didn't have immigrants, everything would fall apart -- the jobs would go unfilled or sumpin'.... Cheeeeriminy.
"We live under the Confederacy. We're a podunk bunch of swaggering pious hicks."
--Bruce Sterling