"funny, how they call it "benefits". Everywhere else it's called "worker's rights"." And in case they leave the US to live in another country, they call themselves "expats" and not "immigrants".
@@harrydehnhardt5092 The British call themselves expats too, what ever that means (ex-patriotic? no that can't be it) When I lived in Singapore there was a big "expat" community, they all lived in the same area, when I would meet some of them in the workplace they wondered where I lived because they hadn't seen me around the expat estate, that was because I didn't live there, I lived out in suburban Singapore (Pasir Ris) with many other Singaporeans. If you move to live in another country the best thing to do is live amongst the locals, you get a much better experience.
@@daveamies5031 The word expatriate comes from the Latin terms ex ("out of") and patria ("native country, fatherland"). It gives a whole new meaning to ex-wife doesn't it 🤣
@@johnp139 Ah yes, the often unknown part of Declaration of Independence, that the Founders apparently forgot to put down in writing - "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness... *but only if you have a marketable skill.* " How convenient that, apparently, your value as a human being in the modern USA may only be decided by the large companies, and specifically those making profits off of them.
Fun Story, here in Germany, we had this Workaholic, who refused to take a Vacation, after the 2nd year, the Company got worried and tried to force him but he wouldn't go, so they filed a complaint and a judge "sentenced" him to 3 month vacation and gave out a restriction order to not do anything work related for that time ... 😂
In Switzerland, you have to take your holidays. At least once for 2 weeks at a row. Your employer is guilty if he doesn't make sure that you keep to this.
Americans are totally fooled, they need to completely overhaul, their system on average there are 2 mass shootings every day of the year No Free to use national health service No paid childcare they work the most hours the gap between rich and poor is the biggest the health service is the most expensive Wake up America!
For a business used to operate in unhealthy conditions ( like an underdevelopped nation ) it would be an heresy. That's why you won't see it any day in the USA.
An American who moved to NZ with her family several years ago and has a TH-cam site discussing cultural and other differences between the two countries made an interesting comment recently. She said that she is realizing that it is not so much that all countries are different but rather that there is the US and the rest of the developed world, and that's not in a good sense for the US. A friend of ours who was doing her PhD at a NZ university while chatting to an American contact on the net said how good she found living here. Her correspondent said that the US was better in every way, in fact (surprise) the best country in the world. When asked what other countries he had been to he got very defensive, saying that he didn't need to see other countries when it was obvious to everyone that the US was best. Ah....the comforting embrace of ignorance.
No doubt it is better for higher paying jobs but against that must be weighed such factors as safety, quality and breadth of schooling and general governance, not to mention such things as healthcare. All a matter of priorities.
@@naebeauty1467 I get 800NZD - 505USD on minimum wage each week ( After Tax ) We kiwis got it good, plus we got very inexpensive and most times free healthcare and anyone has the ability to get a benefit if they are struggling to find employment, it takes 3days to apply for and gets you enough money for rent and food etc, not much but enough to have a roof and food for people in desprate situations like myself since I had to go on the benefit when I couldnt find any work and had to pay for rent and food.
I work as a Manager in Spain, Its a "normal" part of my job to make sure that my guys dont get burned and they get enough time with their families resting. A lot of them get around 30 days off per year and sometimes I have to push them to take them. Not because Im afraid they will sue the company or any of that, its simply because I care about their mental health. additionally, Its my job to anticipate health issues or unfortunate situations. I would never say to someone, "come to work sick or find a replacement", that is not their responsability, is mine. Even if I were to think of it from a cynical point of view, a happy rested employee works more efficiently, is more loyal and will normally be better in any metric you can look at.
Part of the story of why McDonalds employees are treated so much better in Denmark, is that the employees are heavily unionized. Back when McD first came to Denmark, they tried to behave more like in the US, and bust the unions. This was not accepted by the unions, and led to conflicts that forced McD to conform to the Danish norms
Well, as a French living in France these days, I wish to add that every of these things in every job we have, It's because we unionized, fought and keep fighting, even in the streets if needed. And many workers (me included) think that Unions are way too soft. Fun fact ? we learnt many things from american Unions, before Maccarthy's witch hunt destroyed them.
There is also the point that just because you call it a 'Union', it means the same. Sure, it means that workers band together, that's the same, but... In Germany, Unions represent an entire business sector of workers. On top of that, when a Union negotiates something like a pay raise, everyone in that business sector gets that raise even if they are not union members. There are laws that govern that.
@@Erynden "fun" fact. It was actually Ronald Reagan that hammered the last nail in the union coffin in the US in 1981, where he fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers and barred them from ever working again for the federal government. He basically overruled the workers right to strike and, single-handedly destroyed the American Unions, because almost nobody dared to strike after that. Even more "fun" fact. Ronald Reagan was the president of SAG, Screen Actors Guild, a union, from 1947 to 1952, and again from 1959 to 1960, where he left the SAG for good. In that time, he worked with the FBI to reveal "communists" in the entertainment business, after the McCarthy doktrin. He was a nasty POS!
Funny how you can’t even critique your govt without getting arrested. We have freedom of speech and to counter that is a slap in the face. Also why are you on a American website if you disapprove of it so much
@@rickardelimaa America’s freedom of speech is very different from Europe’s freedom of speech. That’s why majority of Europe’s citizens have no say in there democracy bc they fear consequences. In america we don’t fear critiquing our govt we hold them accountable. Y’all can’t even critique y’all prime minister or wave y’all flags without getting looks and other things, hehe
@@StephenASmithESPN where did you get the idea he disapproved of US in that comments. Also "freedom of speech" is in most countries. Its nothing close to unique. And what does "freedom of speech" have to do with Workers Rights. The issue isn't freedom of speech. It's workers rights... It is possible to have BOTH
"Fast food outlet". In UK they aren't even titled as a "caff". Which is a workers rough eating place. The tea and builders breakfasts are usually great, the pies and mash hearty.roasts are good. The puddings the right size of filling with custard on the lot. Best for cheap eating and never so puny a meal as the US fast foods. The shine went off them with the US typical cost cuts on standards, value and franchise degradation of the brand. Cold soggy fries from one, limp brown old lettuce from another soon puts you off patronising any of them. Pub grub is good if not Bistrodised to art in a plate. Not into picked and pulled around food myself. How many hands were fiddling with the design ?
I'm Swedish and all I can say about taxes is that I guess I'm not selfish enough to feel that everyone else will have to look out for themselves. I guess I prefer to know that regardless of who has an accident and regardless of the severity of it, all of us can get help if we need and want it. It could be me, it could be a family member, it could be the stranger passing me in the street or a person on the other side of the country that I will never meet or even speak to my entire life. Why should any one of these aforementioned persons be worth less than the other and not be deserving of a decent life? We all tick the box of "human". Thank you for the good reaction vid!
I'm Swedish and in the highest tax bracket, I could stand to pay a bit more. I like our system but it could be improved upon. The privatisation of everything (especially schools and the postal system) was REALLY stupid as well.
@@michaelmay5453 It was a bit worrying when the partial privatisation started, yeah. It could go very bad, okay or decent. Considering we have a cheat sheet where it could go, I don't feel comfortable saying that one option is that it could go great. I'm not in the same bracket but I think most if not almost all Swedes feel they should or will try to do their part and that's what's important.
@@Eyrenni I want both schools and healthcare as well as the postal system back under governmental control. I consider these services to the population and as such they should be run by the government. There is a reason why all three have been doing SO much worse and we lost our first place and are now down to 13'th place. Look at Finland, they have first place now, they have the same system we used to have. We need to go back to when we were doing our very best and look at other nations like Finland to accomplish that. I don't even see how this is something that should be discussed, we already have the answer. Allt detta sagt, snart fjärde advent och nån vecka till Jul. Jag hoppas du får allt du någonsin önskat dig. :)
@@michaelmay5453 I hadn't looked at the numbers, but that's interesting, thank you. It does say a fair bit, I agree. We should do our best for the people who live in the now and for those who will come after us. Detsamma till dig! Jag hoppas på fred och förbättringar. Om man ska önska något kan man ju slå på stort så kanske vi når åtminstone halvvägs.
This is the scandinavian way of thinking. I'm from Norway (hej söta bror) and we're experiencing the same things you are with privatisation of public benefits and infrastructure. Still most of us won't mind paying a bit more taxes to keep essential infrastructure like the power grid, postal service and health care under government control.
The fact we work more hours than Japan is the thing that really gets me. Just let that sink in for a moment. America works more hours than the country that literally has a word for "death by overwork". I have no words for this...
I work for international corporation in EU, while the Worldwide office and leadership is located in US. I work in sales (business to business) and when the division was getting started we were bombarded by concern from NA leadership, that EMEA (EU, Middle East & Africa) is never going to pull our weight, because of our poor working ethic. First fiscal year we entered both markets we outearned US by almost 40% revenue. The thing is, the worker laws in EU countries are not there only to benefit the employees (although it is a big part), companies found out that people with actual work life balance are much more productive, which increases company profits in the long term, reduces worker retention and so on and so on.
I'm a retired American expat. I retired to France 6 six years ago. According to a French friend of mine who is a French labor attorney, if a company were to terminate an employee, without proper justification, while they were on vacation the local Departmental Work Council could fine the company up to €500,000, plus the company would have to pay the employee their regular paycheck for 2 years or until they found another job. Basically, there are only a few instances when an employee can be terminated. They include: 1. Sexual harassment, 2. Criminal activity such as theft, giving away corporate secrets, or embezzlement, 3. Watching porn at work, 4. Physically or verbally abusing another employee, 5. Being drunk or doing drugs on the job. In the last case, the company could pay for rehab if they wanted to keep the employee. In France, EVERY employee gets 5 weeks paid vacation, 15 personal days, and 10 sick days, in addition to 15 legal holidays. There is also an EU law that requires ALL workers to be paid a living wage. Everyone is required to take vacation every year. Parents (BOTH) also get maternity leave for 3 months up to 2 years. Here the work week is capped at 36 hours, and your boss is not allowed to call or email you at home, unless it's an emergency. Europeans work to live. In the US people live to work. Americans are nothing more than low paid slaves to corporate America.
I've heard that since hiring a worker is a much bigger commitment in Europe, it can be harder to get hired. What has your experience been with this? (If you have experience with it, that is; I understand that you're retired.)
@@philipmcniel4908 If you're citizen of another EU country and have the proper qualifications for a job, it is rarely an issue to get hired. If you're an immigrant or you come to France "looking" for a job, good luck. If an international company sends you to France, they are required to submit your work visa and a justification for hiring you (usually not a big deal).
A while ago an American company tried to open an office in Europe (I think it was Germany or Austria, but not 100% sure). They tried to employ people based on US labour laws - they offered like $9 per hour, no holidays, no sick pay, no medical, etc. They were shocked when they received a letter from the government advising them their adverts been blocked and what the minimum salary and benefits were that they were legally required to offer.
In Germany such a contract would not be that much of a big deal, apart from the fact that such an extreme case is unheard of, since the parts of the contract that are against German law would simply not count and be automatically superseeded by the minimum requirements. Thats actually not super uncommon to happen, even though not to this extend, since employers in every country will always try to overreach.
I lived in the US for two years. I was horrified by how little people earn and how exploited they are, especially I. Customer Service. Slavery didn’t end with the Civil War, it just shifted gear.
When Walmart came to Germany, they tried to undercut local businesses prices and ignore unions. Just two of the reasons, why Walmart is no longer operating in Germany. Cheddar did a video on that. Also the last time people in my country (Austria) swore allegiance to the flag, was when a certain mustache guy was alive and kicking. It feels kinda fascisty.
Decades ago when they tried to set up in France ,and bring their own system they were kick out rights away of the country ,and were told the French law prevail ,not the Americans way
What don’t you understand our military is huge in america. Kids parents are over seas in Germany Britain etc doing military exercises. Of course the country is proud of the flag and what it represents its to show love and to acknowledge the sacrifice parents make of being away from the kids to maintain a stable democracy. Hitler ran the nazi party it was totally separate from the Germany allegiance and flag. Now if america had a insurgence and was pledging to another flag and another ideology then we would be worried but that’s not happening
@@carlosa7598 Walmart is to big to go bankrupt it can literally open a store and gain no profits and they can still keep it up for years bc they make so much profit. It’s a business strategy if the market isn’t there no need continue having a Walmart open. Beside United States capita per civilian is 60,000$ annually while japans is 25,000$ y’all are to poor to have a Walmart in other words
There was a funny news article in our newspapers recently where one of our celebrities got married and moved to France with her husband, so she took a regular office job there. There was one time she sent an email AFTER 6pm to a co-worker about work, and she got REPORTED to the HR for breaking labour laws there. Yeah the French are really serious about no work after working hours 🤣
Taxes are addressed in the video: "David Cross - Why America Sucks at Everything". Here it is shown that while European and especially Nordic countries seem to pay more tax, it is often less so, especially when considering healthcare. Greetings from the Netherlands.
Yeah it's basically on the surface, in the US it looks like you're paying less but once you add everything up, it tends to be more, Europeans in EU countries pay more in taxes but usually have more money in their pockets at the end of it. It's the same with VAT and Sales Tax, in the EU countries, the price of goods is final, including taxes, in the US, the price is shown without taxes and it gives the impression of being cheaper, sometimes they are cheaper but sometimes not once tax is taken into account and many people make the mistake of showing prices in Europe including taxes to the ones in the US not including taxes. To me it all comes across as misleading, to make things look cheaper on the surface than it actually is and let's not get into tipping which the actual average is around 20% and as to me, that is part of the overall cost of the food you are buying. Europeans don't realise how good they've got it, a lot of things are taken care off by the system and taxes, things are a lot more upfront on how much you pay to buy something.
As a Lithuanian, i have to confirm about 2 years paid leave for child care. And that's with every child you have. Not only that, you get "Newborn gift pack" from government, which welcomes new baby and give you all necessities for a month. Also, while first 100% paid year is strictly for mother, 2nd 80% paid year can be taken by father if mother want's to pursue Career. And those 2 years counts as "Work Experience" too Literally, my sister had 3 kids, and skipped 6 years off work. After first child, she took 2 years, returned, worked for 3 months got pay rise, left for 2nd child, took 2 years, return, work for 6 months, left for 3rd child. Now she is Engineer with 7 years of experience. Amazing what tax money can do for people,
@@maozedong8370 those 3 kids will probably pay taxes for 30+ years on average each. 90+ years of tax payers is easily worth 6 years of a stay-at-home mom
I think you missed the fact that in most countries vacation time and sick days and parental leave is set by law. Companies can not give you less if they want to. In Us some companies give you some but they do not have to by Law. Its a huge difference 😎🇧🇻
@@johnp139 Let me flip that question around for you. Why should any employer be allowed to deny you paid vacation? More importantly, why should any employer regardless of what contract you signed be allowed to force you to show up to work sick? Most companies can always find another worker who is willing to accept bad working conditions. Even if they can't, any company with more than a dozen employees will have the capital needed to close down for a few months without going bankrupt. And even when they do go bankrupt, the owner will still be able to eat. Most Americans on the other hand can't afford a $40 emergency. They do not have the time to shop around for a better job. And don't even pretend that every single one of those Americans who can't afford an emergency are bad with money. You know as well as I do that such a claim is complete and utter bullshit. A country where skipping meals and being homeless is a regular occurrence is not a country worth living in. The US is a dystopia in every sense of the word. To the point where I've seen fictional dystopias I would sooner choose to live in than the US. The lack of bargaining power for the workers is one of the main reasons for that. The people in power are the ones who need to explain why they should be allowed to deny you basic rights. Not the other way around.
I love meeting Americans on holiday. As they are only there for the weekend, it shocks them that we are there for 2 weeks. Although I am usually happy that they are only there for the weekend, due to them being extremely loud and obnoxious. I also take pleasure in educating them on their own history that they don't seem to know.
Good because these arrogant people in America needs to be educated on how badly they are getting treated and screwed over by corrupt workforce companies in America
I used to wonder about how Americans sometimes seemed to be 'overly concerned' about things like medical treatments and taking time off. Then I found out how bad it really was. To people in other countries it's like a nightmare. The US has a system that's literally killing it's own people and too many rich and powerful people are profiting from it to change it..
I am an American, and I started moving factories out of the USA to foreign lands around the late 1980's, into the 1990's. The very first thing that I noticed was how much more relaxed, freer, calmer, and better paid my (equivalent) foreign staff were. I initially decided to move to Australia, but chose China instead. Been here in China for the last 20 years, and I have to say... when an American company approaches me with some kind of "compensation plan" to employ me... I laugh in their face. They are completely clueless. The rest of the world does not fill out W-2 forms, perform yearly 1040 reports, and use the USD. It's amazing how insular the USA is. Rant off.
I remember many years ago now when I was Export Controller at the West London plant of the UK subsidiary of a major US food manufacturer and a US-trained middle-ranking manager paid us a visit. I was delegated to show him around and in the late morning I asked him what he wanted to do for lunch. He said he always worked through lunch and would carry liaising with our staff during that hour. It was my happy duty to tell him that unfortunately he couldn’t do that because everyone would be away from their desks. I took him for a simple pub lunch and when I afterwards presented my petty cash voucher for approval by my boss it was the only time I EVER had one queried - and that was about the tiny amount claimed for a lunch for two! I reflected from then on that these Americans, friendly agreeable and efficient though they were, were also distinctly odd.
Similar story. I’m English (London) and worked most of my life as a telecoms engineer/consultant and worked and lived around the world and on many sites,there were Americans. Knew everything about their work and most were friendly guys,but outside of work tramlines,they were oddly ignorant,even about the country they were working and living in. They seemed uninterested in any local culture or any subjects other than work. One of them asked me when I was moving to America as I’d get a good job with “benefits” (we call them rights here). He just would not believe me when I told him I had no intention of moving there and eventually accused me of lying and got quite angry. Maybe he’d been told to headhunt as he tried the same thing with a Swedish guy who actually laughed and said he’d NEVER move there. As you say,odd bunch.
I remember when I was on holiday in the US for 5 weeks (I live in the UK) I was talking to some Americans who were amazed I still had another 2 weeks to use. I was equally shocked they believed the 2 weeks they had to use in an entire year was good. I explained I was working for the NHS and was entitled to 6 weeks leave each year but because I was a "front line " worker I wouldn't automatically get the public holidays off they were added to my entitlement so an extra 6 days (1 week and 1 day) I had more than 10 years consecutive NHS service so I got another week making 8 weeks and 1 day
16:19 I can't imagine there is no mandatory maternal leave. In Slovakia, it's full three years (or six years, if the kid needs a special care) and it's paid - not well, but paid, and it can be either the mom or the dad staying home. Three-year-olds can then start to go to a public preschool (3-6 y.o.) and the parent can go back to work. We have a new law right now, so after the child is born, the fathers can take additional two weeks of leave to stay at home with the mom on maternal leave and spend time with their newborn child.
@@johnp139 What you say is 'rich people - get kids and live well, poor people - don't get kids or starve'. Very human, really. If you don't realize, that money (not even 300 € monthly for the mother instead of her salary) is an investment of the state to its future citizens and taxpayers and to the new parents, who are also taxpayers. Everyone pays and everyone gets it back in different life situations, we take care of each other and don't exclude the poor. Happy people make happy society as a whole, not only a few privileged individuals. If a country can't take care of the most vulnerable, it's a shit country.
@@johnp139 What you say is 'rich people - get kids and live well, poor people - don't get kids or starve'. Very human, really. If you don't realize, that money (not even 300 € monthly for the mother instead of her salary) is an investment of the state to its future citizens and taxpayers and to the new parents, who are also taxpayers. Everyone pays and everyone gets it back in different life situations, we take care of each other and don't exclude the poor. Happy people make happy society as a whole, not only a few privileged individuals. If a country can't take care of the most vulnerable, it's a shit country.
@@johnp139 and your taxes go to the most expensive medical system in the world that gives you exactly 0 things for free. So yes, I am proud to pay taxes for his kids. Than pay taxes to go to the hospital for a operation and becoming homeless because I cant pay it. :)
"Salary work" in the UK would be based on a set number of hours. So you work 40hrs a week, you get paid x amount per month, every month. If you get asked to come in for additional hours - or overtime - you would normally get paid for those hours. It could be TOIL (Time off in lieu, where you get the same amount of time to take off), time and a half (where you get paid your hourly rate plus an additional 50% of that rate, for each hour of overtime you worked) or if it's a Sunday or a Holiday, double time (where you get twice your hourly rate for each hour you worked).
Here in Sweden the parents can actually split or decide themselves who's staying home and for how long! So its not just the mother getting leave for having kids, they get 480 days to split however they feel like to stay home taking care of the child! Its amazing imo, and im not even a parent myself!
@@johnp139 It's a combination of both tax money and then your employer, its so you get about 80-90% of your normal paycheck every month even tho you're at home with the child!
Hi from OZ. Having watched several of your reactions I can honestly say that you come across as a very sincere and thoughtful person, so thank you. Keith once of England but now Australia. 😄
I have a standard call centre role in England and I'm full time at 35hrs a week. I get 25 days leave (paid) 8 Bank Holidays (paid, labor days to you) and it is illegal to contact me about work outside of those 35hrs. All these type of roles are salaried.
Here in Spain there is "only" 16 weeks of parental leave, but 16 for each parent. And the mother has 6 of them as mandatory when the baby is born. She cannot refuse them, if she wants to go to work, it's no legally allowed. The father has 4 weeks that he can only pick when the baby is born (to take care of both the baby and the mother). But the rest of weeks can be picked as they prefer during a year. Both at the same time or one after another.
Small note: in my European home country you can even do an apprenticeship as a specialist (shop) or specialist (commercial) for system gastronomy at McDonalds. This means that after passing the exams you actually hold a recognized professional certificate in your hands. No unskilled workers ;)
My wife had to go to hospital for at least 2 weeks now. I called my employer, told him I am off for 2 weeks taking care of our 6yr old child. He said okay. I am off for two week at full pay not even using vacation time (because 2 weeks of paid care leave, when needed are the law). My wife is at the hospital, getting treatment for free. I am from Austria.
@@johnp139 It is. Granted. She has to pay a few bucks for the food, but the treatment is free. And don't tell me she pays by taxes. Because everyone has to pay them, sick or not.
@@johnp139Even if you are unemployed, or even unable to work for any reson, you get treated for free. You don't need a company or you paying insurance. even the homeless if there are some, will get treatments or hospitalized for free. Because everyone pays taxes and taxes gives citizens the services they need, health, social security, transports etc
2:22am on a Tuesday here in NZ. Can't sleep - session with personal trainer yesterday (Ow!!). Thought I'd watch something that would send me to sleep. Ended up watching the two 'America messed you up' things. Then this. Then subbed. Think I'll go to sleep now. On the video itself, I am amazed that your nation has somehow survived this long. Can't really imagine living it.
LOLOL not the best videos to help you sleep, huh? That's so funny. And thank you, it's been so interesting learning more about this. Hope you sleep well. 💜
The greatest thing in France is that we are paid salary and if your employer asks you to do more hours than you should you just say "no" and go home without fearing being fired.
Danish McDonald's workers also get 5 weeks of paid vacation, after a year of employment. And you are more or less FORCED to take those days off. Of the 5 weeks, you are entitled to take 3 consecutive weeks off, in the summer time, between 1st May, and 30th September (I believe it is). As everyone one else in Denmark, and many European countries have similar benefits.
In Finland it's 5 weeks as well. You'll have to have at least one two week consecutive vacation during summer months. You can have total of 4 vacation weeks during summer and 1 during winter. I usually go for 2 + 1 week for summer and 1+1 for winter. You can always take your vacation as money, but it's silly since you'll lose the vacation money: It's 50% extra for each vacation day. So if you'll earn 100€ per day on average you'll get 150€ for each vacation day.
@@kimnice That's kinda stupid, I mean the fact that you must take your vacation during summer. I myself hate summer and love winter, and I take most of my vacation in winter time (in Romania it's the same 2 weeks consecutive vacation but anytime during the year, not just summer).
@@RaduRadonys It depends on the contract. For example I have to take 3 weeks consecutive holidays during the summertime, but I get 6 weeks total and can spend the remaining 3 weeks when I wish.
@@RaduRadonys As a Dane, if you work in a company which is closing during the Summer Holiday. In my last 20 years in a minor firm, being able to deliver its essential goods to order all the year round, we found out amongst ourselves (7) when to have our vacations, so I visited China in December and Bali in January/February! And I had 6 weeks of paid vacation time during a year.
Way back in the early 90s in Germany, I was one of the original hires for what was then USAir/USAirways. We held meetings with the company representatives to thresh out work/employment issues. The initial talks about adapting the US way of employee remuneration immediately disappeared upon learning that the German government would not take kindly to that and that the company would face labour and judicial reprecussions. Thank goodness they immediately latched on to that.
I don't understand how Americans can patronise businesses that won't pay a living wage, or allow staff to unionise. Boycott McDonalds& Starbucks for a start, and buy good food from ethical businesses. And get your friends and family to do likewise. Be the change you want to see.
In Italy you must take your unused holiday but the end of each year. They will not let you into the building. This also for insurance reason. If you are on holiday and have any accident the company will not be responsible but if you are at work on your holiday time the company will be responsible. The guard will literally remove you from your work station or call the police to physically accompany you out. Of course this really never happens but this is the law.
All Americans are continually told that America is the greatest country in the world. This is called "Propaganda", and in general propaganda is usually not true. Why do most Americans think that America has the greatest Freedoms? Because they see it, or because they are continually told it. Most people in the other first world civilized countries of the world, never think about Freedom, it's just something that we generally have. The other fun thing to consider is that when you hear about Americans talking about their "Freedoms", it is usually "Freedom" to do shitty things.
I'm Finnish and between ages 9 to 14 I always thought I'd move to U.S, except then my eye's opened. In worklife ,schooling systems and everything. In U.S many need to work 2 or 3 jobs to pay rent, Healthcare and so on. Also you get fleeced on wages. I started earning 21Euros per hr on my 3rd year as loader. Mean those big machines that fill truck bed with 1 skoop. Sure I pay higher tax -23% but that did helped me once pandemia began. I got rent for free from KELA a Finnish job care system. Also I got medication for free, and got 50% of my full-time wages on top of that. Also Finland did well in pandemic suppression. Things did Not go that well in USA I found out.
As an American, I can tell you that loader drivers aren't the ones working 2-3 jobs just to pay rent. It's a skilled industrial job where you're in charge of a multi-ton piece of equipment, not a minimum-wage job, and skilled industrial jobs tend to pay OK here.
Hello Heidi, yes this video shocks properly. A suggestion from me would be "America is not the greatest Country anymore" The next shock for you. This was a show but so true. People always say that taxes in Europe are so high, but the state also gives us a lot in return. We do not have to pay the doctor extra, the hospital is paid 100%, drugs from the pharmacy on prescription only a small cost of 5-10 euros, other drugs that are not prescription I can buy cheap. School education is free. At the universities only a small share of semester fees of about 600 euros per semester, but then also includes reduced admission to events, driving on public transport (buses and trains). All this is not available in the USA. Basically, the U.S. citizen pays more per month than we do in taxes. Heidi I can really only recommend you to start a trip to Europe with your husband, then YOU or you will see and recognize huge cultural differences, that should be another shock for you. Ask yourself, why do so many Americans leave their beloved America? Precisely because they no longer agree with the way of life in their country, you can understand it only too well why.
It all boils down to disposable income you have at the end of the day, Europeans get higher taxes but we also get a lot in return, studies have been done that Europeans actually keep more of their money than Americans do once you take into account all the benefits Europeans get with higher taxes and at the end of the day, it's not hard to see Europeans are doing well, even with higher on the surface taxes as they have a lot of disposable income, if taxes were high with nothing in return, Europeans would have far less purchasing power than we do.
@@paul1979uk2000 You can put all "Europeans" in the same basket. For example here in Spain most people aren't able to reach the end of the month with their salaries, since their wages are half of those in France or Germany, and a third of the salaries in Netherlands or Denmark. Here many people is really struggling and *not* doing well with their disposable income... if they got any income at all. For example, I've been unemployed the last 15 years with ZERO income, and there are 3 million unemployed people in Spain alone.
similar to hear in Japan. We have school tuitions based on incomes from Kindergarten all the way to college. the only way schools make money is to basically get more students, its simple as that.
The thing is America workers needs to get a union going and fight this bullshit here in America to get it to be like Europe with mandatory paid vacations benefits fair wages work life balance
I had a conversation with my boss yesterday. The most important topic was vacation planning. (I still have to use 5 vacation days from last year until the end of March). I already had "problems" last year because I had too many vacation days left at the end of the year. Next week in the team meeting the planning and coordination of the vacations for the whole year will be the topic. So that no new projects fall into the vacation season I work in switzerland ;- )
Same, but Im in 🇳🇴🤗. I couldn’t transfer them to 2023 (yeah I think you can in most companies) so I had to take them out mid december when I had already set up several days months ago to cover the xmas days 23, 27,28,29 of december. Kind of a waste to have a holiday before the holiday🤭
Started a new job in Germany recently. And one of the first things they told me was to hand in my wishes for vacation dates for next year. Cause they have to make the plan for everyone's vacation. I could never imagine to just start working and "earn" a handfull of vacation days at some point. I have never been to the US and I'm definitely gonna visit some day. But I would never under any circumstances move there just for the labour situation alone. And we haven't even started talking about guns...
Hi from NewZealand last time i checked the min wage here was around 25 dollars per hour we also have 3 or 4 weeks paid holldays per year that you must take if you dont you will be the only person at work because the rest of the country is on holliday we also get around 7days paid sick days per year and im sure our female workers get maternity leave of up to 1 year we also have free healthcare including free perscriptions for medication if you go to a hospital in nz you will be treated free of charge so i found your article very informing
Here in New Zealand the min wage is 21.50 an hour, paid stat holidays, 30 days maternity leave. time and a half and a paid day in lieu if you work on a public holiday. 2 weeks paid vacation a year. min 40 hours a week if full time. Free education, free healthcare.
14:15 "Late nights or weekends". I work a monthly wage in Europe. Working outside of work hours is completely voluntary, and if you do it, you're paid double for the time. For example, lets say you make 4000 euros a month with your contract being 40 hours a week = 100 euros a day = 12.5 euros an hour. Any work outside of 40 hours a week, you are paid 2x12,5e = 25 euros an hour.
In Canada if you worked at McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Harvey's, A&W, KFC, Taco Bell, Tim Horton's, Starbucks everyone who works for them get paid $22 an hour and are treated fairly, well and equally. They also get unlimited sick days and you have to give a doctor's note everytime your sick. You also get 3 weeks paid vacation after 1 year with the company. 4 weeks after 5 years, 5 weeks 10 years, 6 weeks 15 years, 7 weeks 20 years. this is the maximum of Paid vacation every year. You can't carry your vacation over it must be used up. As you start over again in the new year with Vacation and Sick days. You also get Paternity Leave and Maternity Leave 100% paid here in Canada for 1 year . This goes for same sex couples and straight couples and both get Paid Paternity Leave and Maternity off. We have strict labour laws including Employers must pay WSIB Premiums which is Workplace Safety Insurance Board when an employee injures themselves on the job. We also have the Canadian Occupational Health and Safety Act as well as the Ontario Human Rights Act. Also here in Canada Parents get $700 for every child they have till there 18 years old which is called the Child Tax Credit. Families also get money for Childcare which is $1000 per child if there in daycare.
Just saw your reaction and I would put my 2 cent in. But also remember that we in Denmark also pays a lot more in taxes (then comes the talk about what the taxes covers, and how we calculate taxes, for example you have state and federal taxes but that is a talk for another day). I am a Dane, and I do believe that one the main reasons for the difference is how strong worker unions are in the different Countries. One of the things I hear from companies in Denmark is that, they prefer you to be less at work (compared to other countries), but when you are at work you are there 100%. So in Denmark the philosophy of most companies is if your base (home) is working you are more focused while you at work, and it reduces blunders, and blunders can be quite expensive no matter if you are a blue collar worker or a office guy. And if you are happy at your work you will not start looking for another job. No matter what the Company tells you, it is expensive to replace an employee and even worse do you leave for a competitor and bringing your knowledge with you. 1. You loose experience, both work experience (how many years you have done the job), and how long time you have been at the Company, each Company does things differently. You might have some courses the new guy doesn't. 2. You need someone new, the new guy, does he have your work ethics (be on time, etc.), does he "click" with his co-workers, or does the chemistry not work. etc. And it takes time to get people interviewed for the job (read the applications, 2-3 people at the interview, etc.). 3. And if you get a new guy that is what you hoped for (and not just a guy faking it at the interview), it still takes time for that person to get up to speed and "how its done around here". I don't understand why we don't talk about our wages more with our co-workers, the only ones that benefits from us being quiet is the Company, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't talk to strangers on the internet about my salary either, but your co-workers I would, you would be surprised how many people who are doing the same job, gets paid differently. Often when a company don't have so much to do, like seasonal work, we start sending some of our employees on courses, to gain new skills or improve those skills we already have so we are ready when there are plenty to do. In Denmark we can never compete with places like China when it comes to Salaries so we have to compete on knowledge, stability and quality. Oh yeah I hate when the rich say we are in this boat together, no we are not, I'm in my little row-boat, and you are on a cruise ship, we might be in the same Ocean but the experience of this storm will be different. Greetings from Denmark
As an Australian, I can't say I feel your struggle. I do empathize tho. Australia is responsible for the 3/8 balance. That's 8 hours work, 8 hours recreation & 8 hours rest. We get paid annual leave (vacation), sick leave, carer's leave, maternity leave, leave without pay & in some office jobs wellbeing days. On top of this we are known for making up any reason for another public holiday :Dsympathize
That's all well and good, for those on a 37.5 hour week... But when you're employed on a casual basis for 30 hours per week, you get none of the paid vacation, sick leave or public holidays. I ended up in hospital twice and was paid NOTHING by my employer. I was very lucky that the first stay was not more than 2 nights or I wouldn't have had a job to return to and the second stay was one night and I was sacked immediately, even though I had warned that I was going in for surgery.
@@EarlJohn61 Yeah you got the shit end of the stick budd. Not sure where you're from, but here casuals are on a considerably higher hourly rate. Doesn't make up the difference, but it sure doesn't hurt. Also where I am the government funds 10 days sick leave to casuals (it's a new thing). All this aside, really am sorry you got the sack mate. That's rough.
@@EarlJohn61 Being sacked while on sick leave is "Unfair dismissal". Any lawyer would take your case. If you're elligible (low income) you can get Legal Aid to fund the case and it'll cost you nothing. As a casual you get 25% more per hour than a full/part time employee to help make up for no leave entitlements.
The Denmark comparison is a little extreme as it's a high wage economy. The UK minimum wage is currently $11.17 (at todays exchange rate) but is going up to $12.20 soon. This is for people over 23. Below that it's lower. But you need to include that there are no health insurance costs. Tax is probably lower. The first $14,000 isn't taxed in UK. And food costs are lower see Evan Edingers videos
There is no free lunch. So, someone has to pay the vacations, health care and child leave, of course. It is done with high taxes. But personally, I think it is more than worth it. It is freedom to never have to care about not being able to pay hospital bills and also to be guaranteed 5 weeks of holidays as a minimum.
Hi Heidi, Aussie here. Love our universal health care system. Big up Macca's workers. We don't have a minimum wage here, we have a standard wage for affordable living.
you can nail your eyebrows when i tell you that some companies,here in germany, start testing a 4 day working week,with full payment.and the first results are: the bosses are surprised and happy to see how their workers come back from a 3 day weekend,fully energized,relaxed and many fresh ideas with a smile on their faces.
Great video! The thing about earning vacation days in the US. That is only if the employer and the employee has an agreement about earning a certain amount of vacation days. But here in Sweden the companies are required by law to give their employees a minimum of 25 days (5 weeks) of paid vacation. As an employee you can then negotiate for more days.
I think you would enjoy the videos "Volker Pispers history of USA and ter...ism" and "Die Anstalt - the middle east explained", they are both satirical works in german but with decent english subtitles. Greetings from Germany
May i quote an american: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” ― Mark Twain,
I get 5 weeks annual leave, I get sick leave, I had paid maternity leave, I can study leave, I can have carers leave if my kids or husband is unwell. Since I work with the same company for 17 years I can have 6 months long service leave . I had 3 children and never pay anything in the hospital except the car park 😁hubby had heart attack we never pay anything either. I live in Melbourne Australia 🇦🇺
In Norway, we have to take out minimum 3 weeks vacation , and you get a total of 5 weeks pr year, economical compensated with 12% of what you earned previous year
The thing is, the US is actually doing what it was designed to do when it was founded. The founders only considered a specific group of people to be fully human, so they only granted rights to those people. Even though that privileged group has expanded somewhat, many people are still excluded and oppressed. So the system is working as intended, which is to uplift what the system considers to be the "ideal human" and push down the "subhuman."
@@HailHeidiYes, that’s why they make sure no politician can run without major financial backing. That’s also why it’s only two major parties, can’t let a middle-class, or lower, get power. Just imagine if the billionares lost their power!
@@HailHeidi That would have been a good point if the idea on which the statements are based was also true. But she doesn't. Here an attempt is made subliminally to blame the slave-owning society of the pre-civil war period for the current situation. In fact, it is exactly the opposite. How was the situation before 1860? The North, which had developed an early capitalist industry very similar to that in England, could not compete with the much better quality European industry. And that's why very few of these products were sold to Europe. At the same time, more and more immigrants came from Europe, unwilling to be exploited by US industry after the revolutions of 1848. The south, on the other hand, earns excellently by trading agricultural products to Europe and bought there the high-quality industrial goods that agricultural production needed. The North, sidelined at home and the federal government, barely earned taxes, which means less power. The only solution was to heavily tax this trade and force the South to buy crap made in the North. And the North, squinted at a stupid, uneducated black underclass in the South, who would be better and cheaper to exploit than the whites in the North. This is why, and only because of this, this war was waged. The blacks were free after that. So free that they were free to starve under a bridge in New England... And, of course, this war was waged by the first imperialist president in US history. The largest false flag operation in US history...
@@melchiorvonsternberg844 I don't quite understand your contention . Are you saying that slavery was good ? Because it was that institution which allowed the South to compete in European markets , nothing else . Are black people not worthy of freedom because their freedom was the cause of the decline in the South's economy ? I think the comment about quote ' stupid , uneducated black underclass' says a lot about you and less about them and their struggle for acceptance as human beings . Just because their toil was the major reason the South could be competitive , does not make keeping them as slaves any more morally right . The practice was repugnant , and at that time the entire developed world thought it was anachronistic , that it should be abolished . And how you try to use this as a way to explain America today is disingenuous and excuses the true reason for the problem . Greed , plain and simple . And weak governance .
@@tonyrata4796 I'm almost afraid I'm going to have to confront you with the whole Union Phariseeism. If the US government wanted to take action against slavery, why didn't it continue to do so after the American-Tripolitan War was waged, not least because of this? The US indicated that it was making no effort to support the British in the fight against slavery. And just in case you weren't aware... The slave trade that took place with the Americas is mere shit compared to the trade that took place in Arabia and within the Muslim world in general. And it's still running today, undercover of course! The mentality of Muslims on this subject has never really changed. In Saudi Arabia, slavery was officially abolished in 1962. And the last state to allow and abolish slavery was African-Muslim Mauritania, back in 1981. And just in case you don't have that on your radar... Between 1600 and 1800 AD, Europeans were conquered by North African slavers, to the Sea and small towns in the Mediterranean 1,200,000 Europeans, kidnapped into slavery. These scumbags, went all the way up to Iceland to capture ships. Probably a fun fact that you are not aware of at all. Lincoln wasn't about slavery at all. He has stated this several times. When it seemed opportune to him, he used slavery for his purposes. In reality, the guy eaten up by mercury drugs was an imperialist. And in order to be able to continue his imperialist ideas, he first had to secure his own power base. And that meant preserving the Union at all costs. The price was 600,000 dead (almost all white Americans). And you can see that imperialist thinking very well in how it got the South to fire the first shot. This procedure is wonderfully used again and again. In the case of the USS Maine in Havana, or in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964, to Iraq in 2003. The amazing thing is that Americans keep falling for the same old trick. And then what happened after the war? The renegade states were severely punished. For up to 20 years, the Southerners lived under the occupation regime. And what changed for the blacks? They were then so free that they were free to toil as a cheap, willing and stupid underclass in the industry of the North. They were then free to live and perish under a bridge. Racial segregation continued. And by the time of idiot (and WWI war criminal) FDR, there was discriminatory legislation in 30 out of 48 states. You were and are in this context, always been a bunch of hypocrites. And for me as a European, all of this has nothing to do with black lives matter. But none of that mattered to me at all. I was more concerned that a successful separation of the South would have ensured that you would never have interfered in European affairs. The next complete idiot in the White House, Woodrow Wilson, set in motion a causal chain that will end in 150 million deaths worldwide. Mission accomplished...? And if you have any other questions, like why we're here on earth, feel free to ask. I don't let anyone die stupid unless they specifically insist...
I'm in the process of moving to a Peru right now because life is far better there. People are far poorer there and I will be as well after a while, but the common people are far more intellectually and politically active, they have a much stronger sense of community and they are generally happier and healthier. Oh, and they're actually pleasant to be around which is more than I can say for most of the people that I meet here.
you should look at some topics that the "black forest family" have done. they are a family that moved to germany and did some really nice vids. it will open your eyes and mind even more. greetings
A regular german viewer here: thanks for the constant good videos. I love your open minded approach to many topics. And by the way: what a cute dress you are wearing. Keep up the good content. Greatly appreciated.
Hiya Heidi, as a British viewer I can certainly say Americans are a very warming and intelligent peoples who have advanced the world since the end of WW2 American people are probably on the whole the nicest in the world. The problem begins when it goes higher than the American citizens. Your media, corporate companies, political masters, schools, etc are the issue. It’s all about Money Money Money and the power trips that go with it. It’s called brain washing, and now Americans are realising that it costs thousands for an ambulance in the USA but it’s free of charge in Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and so forth...just one quick example for a reference.
Yes that dichotomy makes it hard to discuss Amercians - because many of them are very nice people - even senior managers and CEOs when they are off the clock or in a social settings. But in a work setting they are uttter cunts and treat each other and the rest of the world so poorly.
@@19thcenturyman95 Two months since my genuine and honest opinion and comment ....I have 65 thumbs, you got nothing because you’re an ignorant farm yard animal..... have fun with your Paragraphs 😜 👍🏻
When you include things like health insurance and sales tax etc., the average American has quite a bit more of their earnings taken than countries like the UK or Germany, and they get a lot less for that money.
$9/hour is so low ! I'm currently a trainee during my 4th year of IT school and I make the equivalent of $13/hour and I only work 60%, the other 40% I'm at school. And this sum is not considered a lot, especially in Switzerland. ALso, as someone who tried McDonald's in many countries including the US, you should try it if you go abroad one time. The US one was probably the worst of all the ones I've had unfortunately.
I am so surprised by the fact that parttime employees do not get any healthcare, vacation days, or other ‘benefits’ as they call them. Here in The Netherlands this is all arranged by law and it does not matter if you work fulltime or parttime, you always get pension, healthcare and vacation days.
Living in Europe, where I am they can ask me to do overtime. However that is taxed way higher, so I just say no. They can not enforce it. I have has a situation where they said "You MUST take your vacation days. because otherwise it is seen as overtime and we do not want that. So I was not allowed to come to work. There are downsides as well. Do you know how stressful it is to plan 40 vacation days each year?
While I was working (now retired) I was entitled to 5 weeks annual leave as well as all statutory holidays such as Christmas, New Year, Easter, etc. Just before I retired I had a stroke and was off work for about 6 months, on full pay as I had accumulated a lot of sick leave entitlement. Prior to moving into management I was a union delegate and saw both sides of situations and it astounds me how US management fails to see the benefits to workplace efficiency of working together to sort problems as they arise. Such different cultures, a book I read a year or two back compared the US and NZ cultures and summarized them as the US placing freedom (define that as you will) first while NZ valued fairness and natural justice.
" a book I read a year or two back compared the US and NZ cultures and summarized them as the US placing freedom (define that as you will) first while NZ valued fairness and natural justice." There is a fundamental difference in the mentality of the two countries. The U.S. reveres individual freedom. Each to his own. Fairness and justice on the other hand, are values that holds a society together.
Australia... The National Minimum Wage is $23.23 per hour or $882.80 per 38 hour week (before tax). Casual employees covered by the National Minimum Wage also get at least a 25% casual loading on top of that. "Tipping culture" doesn't exist here because it literally doesn't need to in order to subsidise a wage to become "livable". Full-time employees are entitled to 4 weeks (1 month) off per year based on their ordinary hours of work, but it is common to receive 5-6 weeks (1.5 months) of vacation per year. Any accrued annual leave not used up during the year is paid when the employment ends. If you (for whatever reason) refuse to take breaks at regular intervals, employers will force you to and actually start getting angry about it or threaten to fire you if you persist (since legally they are liable for worker mistreatment). Paid sick days provided... for WHENEVER YOU ARE SICK. It is not uncommon for Australian workers to refuse promotions, because the extra $$$'s are not worth the loss of free time to them with their friends and families. And fellow Australians on hearing this won't bat an eye or think that this decision was weird. Retirement age 67 years, with full pension provided if without adequate savings or assets. Equaling around $1,096.70 per fortnight for the remainder of your life. Plus all of the aged discounts (house rates, bills, transport, pharmaceuticals etc etc). What the US considers to be "benefits", in virtually the entirity of the rest of the world is referred to as "basic worker rights". Just BASIC... not even impressive at all. Medicare healthcare for all citizens guaranteed. A percentage of any small bills received for medical are often reimbursed and many things are straight up free or are inconsequential amounts. No school shootings, children can (mostly) play outside unsupervised without issue. If your kid is playing by themselves in your front yard, no neighbours will report you for "bad parenting". You can live your entire life without ever seeing a police officer EVER either pull out a gun, or ever gesture reach for a gun, or threaten that they will pull out a gun. Plus police officers get years of training before being let out on the streets... not just 6 months with "de-escalation" being a significant part of that training. If you take a shortcut through someone else's property... you will never get shot. Trying to kill someone for basic trespass would be considered to be astronomically excessive and psychotic. Like "this person need to go to a psychiatric institution" excessive. If you ever hear a "loud bang"... it is machinery, car backfire, fireworks, workers on a constructions site, or a tool of some kind, or a balloon. It is not gunfire. You can go literally years without ever seeing a gun of any kind. There are no car jackings, or ATM holdups. Not only have most people never been robbed on the street, but most Australians live out their lives literally having never met anyone else who has ever been robbed on the street in Aus.
Been looking at your videos for a while. I live in western France, work as a research engineer, PhD level for various countries across E.U, and considered living in US for a long time. I visited NY, LA and have friends in other places. They all discouraged me. Price of a Big Mac in San Francisco is cheap, but in FR it is twice cheaper and i've nevr seen so many homeless people in the streets as i've seen in L.A. I heard so much criticism about "Socialism", "Communism" even. Yet, 2nd richest man in the world : french. Richest woman in the world: French. Statute of Liberty: French. I'm afraid ideology has a grasp on US to the point it is becoming dangerous.
Do you already know about this other series called: "what's clearly a scam but americans have been conditioned to believe it's normal"? Could be even more eye opening... Greetings from germany
Wait until you find out that in most countries in Europe at least , you also get paid Holiday and Christmas bonus , wich is your base monthly salary , and in some companies ( at least in Portugal) you get a bonus if the company hits their annual sales objective.
You should check out videos about different countries (I'm from Australia you should check out videos from here) most other countries seem to treat their citizens better.
great reaction! new sub here, im originally from CT but moved to the uk in 2006 its interesting to me watching others discover the differences between the US and other countries. you should react to US food prices VS UK food prices as well as Mcdonalds in the US Vs the UK if you havent already. one love
honestly i am speechless, even here in West Africa(at least in my country) we do have paid vacations,parental leaves and when you are sick you are out literally sometimes my father doesn't go to work because he is too tired we may be a third world country but honestly i am glad that i was born here and not in the US
A few days ago I saw a comparison video about the food McDonalds in the US offers, compared to the McDonalds food in Europe. I was shocked! In Europe the standard fries are made with 3 ingridients: potatoe, oil and salt < that's it. The fries in the US have 12 ingredients and most of them I don't even know what thy are and can't translate it! For example stuff like: Dinatriumhydrogenphosphat, Tertiär-Butylhydrochinon or Polydimethylsiloxan ... wtf!? :-/ Maybe you'll find this video on youtube, check it out and react to it!? o_O
It's sad, but as soon as I saw Vids like that, I had this in my head. We, outside the USA, aren't THAT much different we love eating crap as well but it seems to me that when we eat shit the same thing in the USA is basically dirrhea.
Croatia here. So, I got pregnant and worked 5 months, started to be very difficult and doctor gave me sick days until I give birth to my child. So i stade home. Gave birth, got around 400€ from the government, 300€ from the city I live in... as a gift. Nurs came to my house once week for a month to check up on us. After I gave birth 6 month got payed my regular wage next 6 month 80% of my regular wage. Stade home for 1 year with my new baby.
Switzerland, you have 4 weeks PTO by law. Most companies give 5 (25 days plus weekends) plus public holidays that fall on Mo-Fr and you have to take 2 weeks together per year by law. Overtime is equal to time off, and if you can’t take time off, you can request them to be paid out at a rate of 125%. If you lose your job you get 2 years of unemployment benefits. You will not go homeless or uninsured. Your life basically can go on as usual, with some more frugal spending.
We are definitely moving to France now. By the way... "France" includes French Polynesia and French Guiana. So you still have tropical beaches and a top tier military. I had a "great" salary job in the US. Phenomenal healthcare. Vacation and holidays were 30+ days a year... except I was in the computer field, so every holiday was when I could actually do my work (because no one else was working and it was safe to make changes). I was there 12 years. I was on call 24/7/365 for ten of those years. And If I worked all weekend saving their ass?... better be warming that seat on Monday. It was absurd. Completely unrelated, I'm kinda an accent nerd, and I can't place yours. You say you're American, but you sound... Swiss? Did you grow up abroad?
13:12 That's exploitation. Here in Europe each country has a minimum of vacation days the employer has to provide by law. Here in Germany everyone has to get 24 payed vacation days per year (if you're working 6 days per week) or 20 days (if you work 5 days per week). This is the absolute minimum and the employer cannot ignore this. Most companies do in fact provide more vacation days in their contracts (25-30 is the average). Employers actually have to ensure that every employee does in fact take their vacation (though that is one of the things where reality slightly differs from the law). Public holidays are on top of this and here in Germany they differ by state between 9 to 15. These additional day are on top of the vacation days. That said - sometimes these holidays unfortunately fall on the weekend which is free anyways so it is not always an additional day off work. Example: New Year's Day is a public holiday where no one has to work (well - most people; there are always a few exceptions of course). However this day can of course be a saturday or sunday. Other holidays are always free because they are not on a specific date - Good Friday and Easter Monday for example are always a friday and a monday and are therefore always additional free days. 14:25 Not the case in Europe as well. We have laws in place to protect the workers from abuse and exploitation like this. The length of the work week is limited to 48 hours per week, the work day is limited to a maximum of 10 hours and there has to be a gap of at least 11 hours between shifts. Note that this only applies to employees though, not to people who are self employed. Here in Germany we also have what is called Tarifverträge (nope has nothing to do with tariffs ;-) ) which are negotiated by the unions on behalf of the employees. Unions are large in Germany btw - what you call a union in the USA on a company level is not a union in Germany, that is what we call a worker's council. Unions cover entire sectors - my union, Ver.Di, covers employees of these sectors: trade, postal, banking, media, public services, transport and traffic. Ver.Di is Germany's second largest union with 2.1 million members after IG Metall (representing manufacturing, mining and steel) with 2.3 million members. 19:40 Not America. The USA. America is a continent with a lot of different countries - even if you exclude South America (12 countries) and the Carribean (13 countries, which are in fact considered to be North American). Mainland North America alone has 10 countries (Canada, the USA, Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Belize, El Salvador and Panama). Yes, taxes are higher. However - you get public serices in return that cover many things US americans have to pay out of their own pockets anyway (like health insurance for example). This means that in reality US americans on average spend more of their paycheck than people in Europe or many other countries, not less. PS: That pledge of allegiance thing is really dangerous. We did that in Germany as well, mostly between the years 1933 and 1945.
Love all this insight, thank you!! And yes, I'm learning and trying to get into the habit of saying US instead of America. Growing up in a country that thinks they're the most important country in the americas doesn't help. 😅💜
I don't know what it's like in America. But in some other countries there are trade unions and tariffs, to which the companies are bound. Therefore, there is no Wallmarkt in Germany. He had withdrawn from Germany after the conditions. They did not want to struggle with trade unions.
Funny, how they call it "benefits". Everywhere else it's called "worker's rights".
"funny, how they call it "benefits". Everywhere else it's called "worker's rights"." And in case they leave the US to live in another country, they call themselves "expats" and not "immigrants".
@@harrydehnhardt5092 That really bothers me too.
@@harrydehnhardt5092 The British call themselves expats too, what ever that means (ex-patriotic? no that can't be it)
When I lived in Singapore there was a big "expat" community, they all lived in the same area, when I would meet some of them in the workplace they wondered where I lived because they hadn't seen me around the expat estate, that was because I didn't live there, I lived out in suburban Singapore (Pasir Ris) with many other Singaporeans.
If you move to live in another country the best thing to do is live amongst the locals, you get a much better experience.
@@daveamies5031 The word expatriate comes from the Latin terms ex ("out of") and patria ("native country, fatherland"). It gives a whole new meaning to ex-wife doesn't it 🤣
@@daveofyorkshire301 Thanks Dave 👍🏼
What Americans call "benefits" here in England we call "RIGHTS", stay safe happy and healthy everyone ✌️
Get a marketable skill and then you can negotiate for wages.
@@johnp139 therein lies the problem,here in the UK one doesn't need a "marketable skill"to be treated fairly
Get a thermonuclear warhead and you can bargain with an employer
Does that sound like a rational society to live in
@@johnp139 don’t bet on it. It’s not a marketable skill you need to negotiate wages, it’s one of you family’s friends sitting on the board.
@@johnp139 Ah yes, the often unknown part of Declaration of Independence, that the Founders apparently forgot to put down in writing - "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness... *but only if you have a marketable skill.* " How convenient that, apparently, your value as a human being in the modern USA may only be decided by the large companies, and specifically those making profits off of them.
Fun Story, here in Germany, we had this Workaholic, who refused to take a Vacation, after the 2nd year, the Company got worried and tried to force him but he wouldn't go, so they filed a complaint and a judge "sentenced" him to 3 month vacation and gave out a restriction order to not do anything work related for that time ... 😂
LOL I love that!!
In Switzerland, you have to take your holidays. At least once for 2 weeks at a row. Your employer is guilty if he doesn't make sure that you keep to this.
@@arianeh.1884 It'S mandatory here too, so you can imagine the fuss they made 😅
Americans are totally fooled, they need to completely overhaul, their system
on average there are 2 mass shootings every day of the year
No Free to use national health service
No paid childcare
they work the most hours
the gap between rich and poor is the biggest
the health service is the most expensive
Wake up America!
For a business used to operate in unhealthy conditions ( like an underdevelopped nation ) it would be an heresy.
That's why you won't see it any day in the USA.
An American who moved to NZ with her family several years ago and has a TH-cam site discussing cultural and other differences between the two countries made an interesting comment recently. She said that she is realizing that it is not so much that all countries are different but rather that there is the US and the rest of the developed world, and that's not in a good sense for the US.
A friend of ours who was doing her PhD at a NZ university while chatting to an American contact on the net said how good she found living here. Her correspondent said that the US was better in every way, in fact (surprise) the best country in the world. When asked what other countries he had been to he got very defensive, saying that he didn't need to see other countries when it was obvious to everyone that the US was best. Ah....the comforting embrace of ignorance.
Maybe for higher paying jobs it’s better
No doubt it is better for higher paying jobs but against that must be weighed such factors as safety, quality and breadth of schooling and general governance, not to mention such things as healthcare. All a matter of priorities.
Hey as a kiwi I can confirm we got it good here
@@naebeauty1467 I get 800NZD - 505USD on minimum wage each week ( After Tax ) We kiwis got it good, plus we got very inexpensive and most times free healthcare and anyone has the ability to get a benefit if they are struggling to find employment, it takes 3days to apply for and gets you enough money for rent and food etc, not much but enough to have a roof and food for people in desprate situations like myself since I had to go on the benefit when I couldnt find any work and had to pay for rent and food.
$9/hr that’s what delivery Grubhub drivers make on their worst days 😂😢
I work as a Manager in Spain, Its a "normal" part of my job to make sure that my guys dont get burned and they get enough time with their families resting. A lot of them get around 30 days off per year and sometimes I have to push them to take them. Not because Im afraid they will sue the company or any of that, its simply because I care about their mental health. additionally, Its my job to anticipate health issues or unfortunate situations. I would never say to someone, "come to work sick or find a replacement", that is not their responsability, is mine. Even if I were to think of it from a cynical point of view, a happy rested employee works more efficiently, is more loyal and will normally be better in any metric you can look at.
Part of the story of why McDonalds employees are treated so much better in Denmark, is that the employees are heavily unionized. Back when McD first came to Denmark, they tried to behave more like in the US, and bust the unions. This was not accepted by the unions, and led to conflicts that forced McD to conform to the Danish norms
Yes this! Unions have also helped a lot here in Norway to reach goals and minimum wage, push the wage up yearly etc.
Well, as a French living in France these days, I wish to add that every of these things in every job we have, It's because we unionized, fought and keep fighting, even in the streets if needed. And many workers (me included) think that Unions are way too soft.
Fun fact ? we learnt many things from american Unions, before Maccarthy's witch hunt destroyed them.
There is also the point that just because you call it a 'Union', it means the same. Sure, it means that workers band together, that's the same, but...
In Germany, Unions represent an entire business sector of workers. On top of that, when a Union negotiates something like a pay raise, everyone in that business sector gets that raise even if they are not union members. There are laws that govern that.
Same here in Canada, The U'S' is lagging so far behind the rest of the World in pretty much everything.
@@Erynden "fun" fact. It was actually Ronald Reagan that hammered the last nail in the union coffin in the US in 1981, where he fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers and barred them from ever working again for the federal government. He basically overruled the workers right to strike and, single-handedly destroyed the American Unions, because almost nobody dared to strike after that.
Even more "fun" fact. Ronald Reagan was the president of SAG, Screen Actors Guild, a union, from 1947 to 1952, and again from 1959 to 1960, where he left the SAG for good. In that time, he worked with the FBI to reveal "communists" in the entertainment business, after the McCarthy doktrin. He was a nasty POS!
I nearly fell out of my chair when you said "You can earn them", earn paid vacation days... that is like a slap in the face to me.
Funny how you can’t even critique your govt without getting arrested. We have freedom of speech and to counter that is a slap in the face. Also why are you on a American website if you disapprove of it so much
@@StephenASmithESPN 90% of all countries have freedom of speech.
@@rickardelimaa America’s freedom of speech is very different from Europe’s freedom of speech. That’s why majority of Europe’s citizens have no say in there democracy bc they fear consequences. In america we don’t fear critiquing our govt we hold them accountable. Y’all can’t even critique y’all prime minister or wave y’all flags without getting looks and other things, hehe
@@StephenASmithESPN where did you get the idea he disapproved of US in that comments.
Also "freedom of speech" is in most countries. Its nothing close to unique.
And what does "freedom of speech" have to do with Workers Rights. The issue isn't freedom of speech. It's workers rights...
It is possible to have BOTH
@@matwatson7947 again America’s freedom of speech is literal, Europe’s freedom of speech is only ok unless you speaking something they don’t like.
the fact that in the US MacDonalds is called a restaurant is hilarious
"Fast food outlet". In UK they aren't even titled as a "caff". Which is a workers rough eating place. The tea and builders breakfasts are usually great, the pies and mash hearty.roasts are good. The puddings the right size of filling with custard on the lot. Best for cheap eating and never so puny a meal as the US fast foods. The shine went off them with the US typical cost cuts on standards, value and franchise degradation of the brand. Cold soggy fries from one, limp brown old lettuce from another soon puts you off patronising any of them. Pub grub is good if not Bistrodised to art in a plate. Not into picked and pulled around food myself. How many hands were fiddling with the design ?
Actually that's in Australia too
That's all over the world actually
Snackbar.
I'm Swedish and all I can say about taxes is that I guess I'm not selfish enough to feel that everyone else will have to look out for themselves. I guess I prefer to know that regardless of who has an accident and regardless of the severity of it, all of us can get help if we need and want it. It could be me, it could be a family member, it could be the stranger passing me in the street or a person on the other side of the country that I will never meet or even speak to my entire life. Why should any one of these aforementioned persons be worth less than the other and not be deserving of a decent life? We all tick the box of "human".
Thank you for the good reaction vid!
I'm Swedish and in the highest tax bracket, I could stand to pay a bit more. I like our system but it could be improved upon. The privatisation of everything (especially schools and the postal system) was REALLY stupid as well.
@@michaelmay5453 It was a bit worrying when the partial privatisation started, yeah. It could go very bad, okay or decent. Considering we have a cheat sheet where it could go, I don't feel comfortable saying that one option is that it could go great.
I'm not in the same bracket but I think most if not almost all Swedes feel they should or will try to do their part and that's what's important.
@@Eyrenni I want both schools and healthcare as well as the postal system back under governmental control. I consider these services to the population and as such they should be run by the government.
There is a reason why all three have been doing SO much worse and we lost our first place and are now down to 13'th place.
Look at Finland, they have first place now, they have the same system we used to have.
We need to go back to when we were doing our very best and look at other nations like Finland to accomplish that. I don't even see how this is something that should be discussed, we already have the answer.
Allt detta sagt, snart fjärde advent och nån vecka till Jul. Jag hoppas du får allt du någonsin önskat dig. :)
@@michaelmay5453 I hadn't looked at the numbers, but that's interesting, thank you. It does say a fair bit, I agree. We should do our best for the people who live in the now and for those who will come after us.
Detsamma till dig! Jag hoppas på fred och förbättringar. Om man ska önska något kan man ju slå på stort så kanske vi når åtminstone halvvägs.
This is the scandinavian way of thinking. I'm from Norway (hej söta bror) and we're experiencing the same things you are with privatisation of public benefits and infrastructure. Still most of us won't mind paying a bit more taxes to keep essential infrastructure like the power grid, postal service and health care under government control.
The fact we work more hours than Japan is the thing that really gets me. Just let that sink in for a moment. America works more hours than the country that literally has a word for "death by overwork". I have no words for this...
It really speaks volumes. Japan, notoriously known for its overworking culture and death by overwork is surpassed by the US. Holy Jesus
And the only industrialised nation on EARTH that doesn't have paid parental leave! Even a 3rd world country like Ethiopia has it. WTF?
Might be the only 4th world country on the planet. 'Merica, Fuck yeah!
I work for international corporation in EU, while the Worldwide office and leadership is located in US. I work in sales (business to business) and when the division was getting started we were bombarded by concern from NA leadership, that EMEA (EU, Middle East & Africa) is never going to pull our weight, because of our poor working ethic. First fiscal year we entered both markets we outearned US by almost 40% revenue. The thing is, the worker laws in EU countries are not there only to benefit the employees (although it is a big part), companies found out that people with actual work life balance are much more productive, which increases company profits in the long term, reduces worker retention and so on and so on.
the word for it, I believe, is "Karoshi"
I'm a retired American expat. I retired to France 6 six years ago. According to a French friend of mine who is a French labor attorney, if a company were to terminate an employee, without proper justification, while they were on vacation the local Departmental Work Council could fine the company up to €500,000, plus the company would have to pay the employee their regular paycheck for 2 years or until they found another job. Basically, there are only a few instances when an employee can be terminated. They include: 1. Sexual harassment, 2. Criminal activity such as theft, giving away corporate secrets, or embezzlement, 3. Watching porn at work, 4. Physically or verbally abusing another employee, 5. Being drunk or doing drugs on the job. In the last case, the company could pay for rehab if they wanted to keep the employee. In France, EVERY employee gets 5 weeks paid vacation, 15 personal days, and 10 sick days, in addition to 15 legal holidays. There is also an EU law that requires ALL workers to be paid a living wage. Everyone is required to take vacation every year. Parents (BOTH) also get maternity leave for 3 months up to 2 years. Here the work week is capped at 36 hours, and your boss is not allowed to call or email you at home, unless it's an emergency. Europeans work to live. In the US people live to work. Americans are nothing more than low paid slaves to corporate America.
I've heard that since hiring a worker is a much bigger commitment in Europe, it can be harder to get hired. What has your experience been with this? (If you have experience with it, that is; I understand that you're retired.)
@@philipmcniel4908 If you're citizen of another EU country and have the proper qualifications for a job, it is rarely an issue to get hired. If you're an immigrant or you come to France "looking" for a job, good luck. If an international company sends you to France, they are required to submit your work visa and a justification for hiring you (usually not a big deal).
Expat? You're an immigrant too
A while ago an American company tried to open an office in Europe (I think it was Germany or Austria, but not 100% sure). They tried to employ people based on US labour laws - they offered like $9 per hour, no holidays, no sick pay, no medical, etc. They were shocked when they received a letter from the government advising them their adverts been blocked and what the minimum salary and benefits were that they were legally required to offer.
In Germany such a contract would not be that much of a big deal, apart from the fact that such an extreme case is unheard of, since the parts of the contract that are against German law would simply not count and be automatically superseeded by the minimum requirements.
Thats actually not super uncommon to happen, even though not to this extend, since employers in every country will always try to overreach.
@@AliothAncalagonwell, ive heard that in the german Amazon workers complain that their work is... boring. 😂
Reminds me the story of Walmart trying to settle in Germany...
@@superpietonI think it was Norway where they tried and failed hilariously!
I think that was Walmarkt who tried to open a store in Germany in 2004 and failed pretty badly.
I Love the way you start to educate yourself . Keep going , keep an Open Mind and keep on questioning Things. Greetings from Germany 🇩🇪🇪🇺🇺🇸🥰
I lived in the US for two years. I was horrified by how little people earn and how exploited they are, especially I. Customer Service. Slavery didn’t end with the Civil War, it just shifted gear.
I lived there for two years too and I was so glad to get back to England, it's a terrible country.
When Walmart came to Germany, they tried to undercut local businesses prices and ignore unions. Just two of the reasons, why Walmart is no longer operating in Germany. Cheddar did a video on that.
Also the last time people in my country (Austria) swore allegiance to the flag, was when a certain mustache guy was alive and kicking. It feels kinda fascisty.
Decades ago when they tried to set up in France ,and bring their own system they were kick out rights away of the country ,and were told the French law prevail ,not the Americans way
What don’t you understand our military is huge in america. Kids parents are over seas in Germany Britain etc doing military exercises. Of course the country is proud of the flag and what it represents its to show love and to acknowledge the sacrifice parents make of being away from the kids to maintain a stable democracy. Hitler ran the nazi party it was totally separate from the Germany allegiance and flag. Now if america had a insurgence and was pledging to another flag and another ideology then we would be worried but that’s not happening
even here in Japan, Walmart went bankrupt
@@carlosa7598 Walmart is to big to go bankrupt it can literally open a store and gain no profits and they can still keep it up for years bc they make so much profit. It’s a business strategy if the market isn’t there no need continue having a Walmart open. Beside United States capita per civilian is 60,000$ annually while japans is 25,000$ y’all are to poor to have a Walmart in other words
@@StephenASmithESPN you dont even HAVE a proper democracy. Nothing to be proud of pal.
There was a funny news article in our newspapers recently where one of our celebrities got married and moved to France with her husband, so she took a regular office job there. There was one time she sent an email AFTER 6pm to a co-worker about work, and she got REPORTED to the HR for breaking labour laws there.
Yeah the French are really serious about no work after working hours 🤣
Taxes are addressed in the video: "David Cross - Why America Sucks at Everything". Here it is shown that while European and especially Nordic countries seem to pay more tax, it is often less so, especially when considering healthcare. Greetings from the Netherlands.
Yes, I was going to suggest this one too. A must-watch.
I second that recommendation.
Yeah it's basically on the surface, in the US it looks like you're paying less but once you add everything up, it tends to be more, Europeans in EU countries pay more in taxes but usually have more money in their pockets at the end of it.
It's the same with VAT and Sales Tax, in the EU countries, the price of goods is final, including taxes, in the US, the price is shown without taxes and it gives the impression of being cheaper, sometimes they are cheaper but sometimes not once tax is taken into account and many people make the mistake of showing prices in Europe including taxes to the ones in the US not including taxes.
To me it all comes across as misleading, to make things look cheaper on the surface than it actually is and let's not get into tipping which the actual average is around 20% and as to me, that is part of the overall cost of the food you are buying.
Europeans don't realise how good they've got it, a lot of things are taken care off by the system and taxes, things are a lot more upfront on how much you pay to buy something.
For sure! That is true that prices can be so deceiving here because they add the tax separately in the final price.
Yep, recommend that video.
th-cam.com/video/aNghg1Y-WIc/w-d-xo.html
As a Lithuanian, i have to confirm about 2 years paid leave for child care. And that's with every child you have. Not only that, you get "Newborn gift pack" from government, which welcomes new baby and give you all necessities for a month. Also, while first 100% paid year is strictly for mother, 2nd 80% paid year can be taken by father if mother want's to pursue Career. And those 2 years counts as "Work Experience" too
Literally, my sister had 3 kids, and skipped 6 years off work. After first child, she took 2 years, returned, worked for 3 months got pay rise, left for 2nd child, took 2 years, return, work for 6 months, left for 3rd child. Now she is Engineer with 7 years of experience.
Amazing what tax money can do for people,
Sounds like your sister is doing quite a number on the Lithuanian government.
@@maozedong8370 those 3 kids will probably pay taxes for 30+ years on average each. 90+ years of tax payers is easily worth 6 years of a stay-at-home mom
@@diazinth It was a joke bro.
@@diazinth Unless they move to another country.
@@maozedong8370
The joke was in poor taste and inhumane. Sad...
I think you missed the fact that in most countries vacation time and sick days and parental leave is set by law. Companies can not give you less if they want to. In Us some companies give you some but they do not have to by Law. Its a huge difference 😎🇧🇻
WOW! She didn't missed that fact! Even 3th world countries have it!
America is THE ONLY modern Country IN THE WORLD where that's not in the law...
Why should people be forced to take time off? If you don’t negotiate for that with your employer, then you can take time off without pay.
@@johnp139 Let me flip that question around for you. Why should any employer be allowed to deny you paid vacation? More importantly, why should any employer regardless of what contract you signed be allowed to force you to show up to work sick?
Most companies can always find another worker who is willing to accept bad working conditions. Even if they can't, any company with more than a dozen employees will have the capital needed to close down for a few months without going bankrupt. And even when they do go bankrupt, the owner will still be able to eat. Most Americans on the other hand can't afford a $40 emergency. They do not have the time to shop around for a better job. And don't even pretend that every single one of those Americans who can't afford an emergency are bad with money. You know as well as I do that such a claim is complete and utter bullshit.
A country where skipping meals and being homeless is a regular occurrence is not a country worth living in. The US is a dystopia in every sense of the word. To the point where I've seen fictional dystopias I would sooner choose to live in than the US. The lack of bargaining power for the workers is one of the main reasons for that. The people in power are the ones who need to explain why they should be allowed to deny you basic rights. Not the other way around.
@@johnp139 the time off is paid vacations.. why do you want to work for 250 days a year instead of 220 days ?
@@tamhuy10 american slave thinking... :)... Because they have no rights... Most labor laws in the US are illigal in Europe just like having slaves :)
I love meeting Americans on holiday. As they are only there for the weekend, it shocks them that we are there for 2 weeks. Although I am usually happy that they are only there for the weekend, due to them being extremely loud and obnoxious.
I also take pleasure in educating them on their own history that they don't seem to know.
Good because these arrogant people in America needs to be educated on how badly they are getting treated and screwed over by corrupt workforce companies in America
When someone brings up the American Revolution, you can always as them "WHEN'S IT GONNA START ?"
I used to wonder about how Americans sometimes seemed to be 'overly concerned' about things like medical treatments and taking time off.
Then I found out how bad it really was. To people in other countries it's like a nightmare.
The US has a system that's literally killing it's own people and too many rich and powerful people are profiting from it to change it..
And it's driving them off their rockers. There's a reason their society is so violent and the religious are rabid.
What you call "benefits" are called workers rights here in Europe.
I am an American, and I started moving factories out of the USA to foreign lands around the late 1980's, into the 1990's. The very first thing that I noticed was how much more relaxed, freer, calmer, and better paid my (equivalent) foreign staff were. I initially decided to move to Australia, but chose China instead. Been here in China for the last 20 years, and I have to say... when an American company approaches me with some kind of "compensation plan" to employ me... I laugh in their face. They are completely clueless. The rest of the world does not fill out W-2 forms, perform yearly 1040 reports, and use the USD. It's amazing how insular the USA is. Rant off.
I remember many years ago now when I was Export Controller at the West London plant of the UK subsidiary of a major US food manufacturer and a US-trained middle-ranking manager paid us a visit. I was delegated to show him around and in the late morning I asked him what he wanted to do for lunch. He said he always worked through lunch and would carry liaising with our staff during that hour. It was my happy duty to tell him that unfortunately he couldn’t do that because everyone would be away from their desks. I took him for a simple pub lunch and when I afterwards presented my petty cash voucher for approval by my boss it was the only time I EVER had one queried - and that was about the tiny amount claimed for a lunch for two! I reflected from then on that these Americans, friendly agreeable and efficient though they were, were also distinctly odd.
Similar story.
I’m English (London) and worked most of my life as a telecoms engineer/consultant and worked and lived around the world and on many sites,there were Americans.
Knew everything about their work and most were friendly guys,but outside of work tramlines,they were oddly ignorant,even about the country they were working and living in.
They seemed uninterested in any local culture or any subjects other than work.
One of them asked me when I was moving to America as I’d get a good job with “benefits” (we call them rights here).
He just would not believe me when I told him I had no intention of moving there and eventually accused me of lying and got quite angry.
Maybe he’d been told to headhunt as he tried the same thing with a Swedish guy who actually laughed and said he’d NEVER move there.
As you say,odd bunch.
It's the same reason why we wonder why you guys don't have air conditioning. It's odd because it's just different.
@@brucebanner3566 air conditioners pollute. That's why we don't have them.
I remember when I was on holiday in the US for 5 weeks (I live in the UK) I was talking to some Americans who were amazed I still had another 2 weeks to use. I was equally shocked they believed the 2 weeks they had to use in an entire year was good.
I explained I was working for the NHS and was entitled to 6 weeks leave each year but because I was a "front line " worker I wouldn't automatically get the public holidays off they were added to my entitlement so an extra 6 days (1 week and 1 day) I had more than 10 years consecutive NHS service so I got another week making 8 weeks and 1 day
16:19 I can't imagine there is no mandatory maternal leave. In Slovakia, it's full three years (or six years, if the kid needs a special care) and it's paid - not well, but paid, and it can be either the mom or the dad staying home. Three-year-olds can then start to go to a public preschool (3-6 y.o.) and the parent can go back to work. We have a new law right now, so after the child is born, the fathers can take additional two weeks of leave to stay at home with the mom on maternal leave and spend time with their newborn child.
Who the hell pays for that? EVERYONE ELSE! Pay for your own damn kids.
@@johnp139 What you say is 'rich people - get kids and live well, poor people - don't get kids or starve'. Very human, really. If you don't realize, that money (not even 300 € monthly for the mother instead of her salary) is an investment of the state to its future citizens and taxpayers and to the new parents, who are also taxpayers. Everyone pays and everyone gets it back in different life situations, we take care of each other and don't exclude the poor. Happy people make happy society as a whole, not only a few privileged individuals. If a country can't take care of the most vulnerable, it's a shit country.
@@johnp139 What you say is 'rich people - get kids and live well, poor people - don't get kids or starve'. Very human, really. If you don't realize, that money (not even 300 € monthly for the mother instead of her salary) is an investment of the state to its future citizens and taxpayers and to the new parents, who are also taxpayers. Everyone pays and everyone gets it back in different life situations, we take care of each other and don't exclude the poor. Happy people make happy society as a whole, not only a few privileged individuals. If a country can't take care of the most vulnerable, it's a shit country.
@@johnp139 Found the American
@@johnp139 and your taxes go to the most expensive medical system in the world that gives you exactly 0 things for free. So yes, I am proud to pay taxes for his kids. Than pay taxes to go to the hospital for a operation and becoming homeless because I cant pay it. :)
"Salary work" in the UK would be based on a set number of hours. So you work 40hrs a week, you get paid x amount per month, every month. If you get asked to come in for additional hours - or overtime - you would normally get paid for those hours. It could be TOIL (Time off in lieu, where you get the same amount of time to take off), time and a half (where you get paid your hourly rate plus an additional 50% of that rate, for each hour of overtime you worked) or if it's a Sunday or a Holiday, double time (where you get twice your hourly rate for each hour you worked).
Here in Sweden the parents can actually split or decide themselves who's staying home and for how long! So its not just the mother getting leave for having kids, they get 480 days to split however they feel like to stay home taking care of the child! Its amazing imo, and im not even a parent myself!
Yes thats nice, same in Germany. I'm happy to know that all European countries care about there peoples, even UK.
Who pays for that?
@@johnp139 everyone with tax
@@johnp139 It's a combination of both tax money and then your employer, its so you get about 80-90% of your normal paycheck every month even tho you're at home with the child!
Hi from OZ. Having watched several of your reactions I can honestly say that you come across as a very sincere and thoughtful person, so thank you. Keith once of England but now Australia. 😄
I have a standard call centre role in England and I'm full time at 35hrs a week. I get 25 days leave (paid) 8 Bank Holidays (paid, labor days to you) and it is illegal to contact me about work outside of those 35hrs. All these type of roles are salaried.
Here in Spain there is "only" 16 weeks of parental leave, but 16 for each parent. And the mother has 6 of them as mandatory when the baby is born. She cannot refuse them, if she wants to go to work, it's no legally allowed. The father has 4 weeks that he can only pick when the baby is born (to take care of both the baby and the mother). But the rest of weeks can be picked as they prefer during a year. Both at the same time or one after another.
Small note: in my European home country you can even do an apprenticeship as a specialist (shop) or specialist (commercial) for system gastronomy at McDonalds.
This means that after passing the exams you actually hold a recognized professional certificate in your hands. No unskilled workers ;)
My wife had to go to hospital for at least 2 weeks now. I called my employer, told him I am off for 2 weeks taking care of our 6yr old child.
He said okay. I am off for two week at full pay not even using vacation time (because 2 weeks of paid care leave, when needed are the law). My wife is at the hospital, getting treatment for free.
I am from Austria.
It’s not for FREE!!!!
@@johnp139 It is. Granted. She has to pay a few bucks for the food, but the treatment is free.
And don't tell me she pays by taxes. Because everyone has to pay them, sick or not.
@@johnp139Even if you are unemployed, or even unable to work for any reson, you get treated for free. You don't need a company or you paying insurance. even the homeless if there are some, will get treatments or hospitalized for free. Because everyone pays taxes and taxes gives citizens the services they need, health, social security, transports etc
2:22am on a Tuesday here in NZ. Can't sleep - session with personal trainer yesterday (Ow!!).
Thought I'd watch something that would send me to sleep. Ended up watching the two 'America messed you up' things. Then this.
Then subbed. Think I'll go to sleep now. On the video itself, I am amazed that your nation has somehow survived this long. Can't really imagine living it.
LOLOL not the best videos to help you sleep, huh? That's so funny. And thank you, it's been so interesting learning more about this. Hope you sleep well. 💜
The greatest thing in France is that we are paid salary and if your employer asks you to do more hours than you should you just say "no" and go home without fearing being fired.
Danish McDonald's workers also get 5 weeks of paid vacation, after a year of employment. And you are more or less FORCED to take those days off.
Of the 5 weeks, you are entitled to take 3 consecutive weeks off, in the summer time, between 1st May, and 30th September (I believe it is).
As everyone one else in Denmark, and many European countries have similar benefits.
In Finland it's 5 weeks as well. You'll have to have at least one two week consecutive vacation during summer months. You can have total of 4 vacation weeks during summer and 1 during winter. I usually go for 2 + 1 week for summer and 1+1 for winter.
You can always take your vacation as money, but it's silly since you'll lose the vacation money: It's 50% extra for each vacation day. So if you'll earn 100€ per day on average you'll get 150€ for each vacation day.
@@kimnice That's kinda stupid, I mean the fact that you must take your vacation during summer. I myself hate summer and love winter, and I take most of my vacation in winter time (in Romania it's the same 2 weeks consecutive vacation but anytime during the year, not just summer).
@@RaduRadonys It depends on the contract. For example I have to take 3 weeks consecutive holidays during the summertime, but I get 6 weeks total and can spend the remaining 3 weeks when I wish.
@@RaduRadonys As a Dane, if you work in a company which is closing during the Summer Holiday. In my last 20 years in a minor firm, being able to deliver its essential goods to order all the year round, we found out amongst ourselves (7) when to have our vacations, so I visited China in December and Bali in January/February! And I had 6 weeks of paid vacation time during a year.
@@RaduRadonyskids have school holidays so if you want to be home with them or take them on holidays
Way back in the early 90s in Germany, I was one of the original hires for what was then USAir/USAirways. We held meetings with the company representatives to thresh out work/employment issues. The initial talks about adapting the US way of employee remuneration immediately disappeared upon learning that the German government would not take kindly to that and that the company would face labour and judicial reprecussions. Thank goodness they immediately latched on to that.
I don't understand how Americans can patronise businesses that won't pay a living wage, or allow staff to unionise. Boycott McDonalds& Starbucks for a start, and buy good food from ethical businesses. And get your friends and family to do likewise. Be the change you want to see.
Because it’s cheap!
@@johnp139 I understand if a person has no option but the lowest priced, lowest quality food, but not otherwise.
In Italy you must take your unused holiday but the end of each year. They will not let you into the building. This also for insurance reason. If you are on holiday and have any accident the company will not be responsible but if you are at work on your holiday time the company will be responsible. The guard will literally remove you from your work station or call the police to physically accompany you out. Of course this really never happens but this is the law.
“The American dream” 😂😂😂 love the ignorance over there
Do you know why they call it "the American dream"? Because you have to be asleep to believe it ;-)
@@onehandcowboy 😂😂😂👌🏻
@@onehandcowboy George Carlin
It's the type of dream you wake up from drowned in cold sweat.
All Americans are continually told that America is the greatest country in the world.
This is called "Propaganda", and in general propaganda is usually not true.
Why do most Americans think that America has the greatest Freedoms? Because they see it, or because they are continually told it.
Most people in the other first world civilized countries of the world, never think about Freedom, it's just something that we generally have.
The other fun thing to consider is that when you hear about Americans talking about their "Freedoms", it is usually "Freedom" to do shitty things.
You are diving deep into the rabbit hole, Heidi. Yeah we ain't that great, sadly. But learning is good! Stay curious!
I'm Finnish and between ages 9 to 14 I always thought I'd move to U.S, except then my eye's opened. In worklife ,schooling systems and everything. In U.S many need to work 2 or 3 jobs to pay rent, Healthcare and so on. Also you get fleeced on wages.
I started earning 21Euros per hr on my 3rd year as loader. Mean those big machines that fill truck bed with 1 skoop.
Sure I pay higher tax -23% but that did helped me once pandemia began. I got rent for free from KELA a Finnish job care system. Also I got medication for free, and got 50% of my full-time wages on top of that. Also Finland did well in pandemic suppression. Things did Not go that well in USA I found out.
As an American, I can tell you that loader drivers aren't the ones working 2-3 jobs just to pay rent. It's a skilled industrial job where you're in charge of a multi-ton piece of equipment, not a minimum-wage job, and skilled industrial jobs tend to pay OK here.
Hello Heidi, yes this video shocks properly. A suggestion from me would be "America is not the greatest Country anymore" The next shock for you. This was a show but so true.
People always say that taxes in Europe are so high, but the state also gives us a lot in return. We do not have to pay the doctor extra, the hospital is paid 100%, drugs from the pharmacy on prescription only a small cost of 5-10 euros, other drugs that are not prescription I can buy cheap. School education is free. At the universities only a small share of semester fees of about 600 euros per semester, but then also includes reduced admission to events, driving on public transport (buses and trains). All this is not available in the USA. Basically, the U.S. citizen pays more per month than we do in taxes.
Heidi I can really only recommend you to start a trip to Europe with your husband, then YOU or you will see and recognize huge cultural differences, that should be another shock for you. Ask yourself, why do so many Americans leave their beloved America? Precisely because they no longer agree with the way of life in their country, you can understand it only too well why.
It all boils down to disposable income you have at the end of the day, Europeans get higher taxes but we also get a lot in return, studies have been done that Europeans actually keep more of their money than Americans do once you take into account all the benefits Europeans get with higher taxes and at the end of the day, it's not hard to see Europeans are doing well, even with higher on the surface taxes as they have a lot of disposable income, if taxes were high with nothing in return, Europeans would have far less purchasing power than we do.
That clip made me watch The Newsroom. Such a good show by the way.
@@paul1979uk2000 You can put all "Europeans" in the same basket. For example here in Spain most people aren't able to reach the end of the month with their salaries, since their wages are half of those in France or Germany, and a third of the salaries in Netherlands or Denmark. Here many people is really struggling and *not* doing well with their disposable income... if they got any income at all. For example, I've been unemployed the last 15 years with ZERO income, and there are 3 million unemployed people in Spain alone.
similar to hear in Japan. We have school tuitions based on incomes from Kindergarten all the way to college. the only way schools make money is to basically get more students, its simple as that.
The thing is America workers needs to get a union going and fight this bullshit here in America to get it to be like Europe with mandatory paid vacations benefits fair wages work life balance
I had a conversation with my boss yesterday. The most important topic was vacation planning. (I still have to use 5 vacation days from last year until the end of March).
I already had "problems" last year because I had too many vacation days left at the end of the year.
Next week in the team meeting the planning and coordination of the vacations for the whole year will be the topic. So that no new projects fall into the vacation season
I work in switzerland ;- )
Same, but Im in 🇳🇴🤗. I couldn’t transfer them to 2023 (yeah I think you can in most companies) so I had to take them out mid december when I had already set up several days months ago to cover the xmas days 23, 27,28,29 of december. Kind of a waste to have a holiday before the holiday🤭
Started a new job in Germany recently. And one of the first things they told me was to hand in my wishes for vacation dates for next year. Cause they have to make the plan for everyone's vacation. I could never imagine to just start working and "earn" a handfull of vacation days at some point.
I have never been to the US and I'm definitely gonna visit some day.
But I would never under any circumstances move there just for the labour situation alone. And we haven't even started talking about guns...
Hi from NewZealand last time i checked the min wage here was around 25 dollars per hour we also have 3 or 4 weeks paid holldays per year that you must take if you dont you will be the only person at work because the rest of the country is on holliday we also get around 7days paid sick days per year and im sure our female workers get maternity leave of up to 1 year we also have free healthcare including free perscriptions for medication if you go to a hospital in nz you will be treated free of charge so i found your article very informing
Another great video would be "How The U.S. Ruined Bread". It shows a bigger picture, than the title suggests.
You mean Monsanto ? ^^
Here in New Zealand the min wage is 21.50 an hour, paid stat holidays, 30 days maternity leave. time and a half and a paid day in lieu if you work on a public holiday. 2 weeks paid vacation a year. min 40 hours a week if full time. Free education, free healthcare.
This was SO DEPRESSING! Check out the same stats in South Africa 🇿🇦
16:21 In Sweden parental leave per child is 16 months (64 weeks).
14:15 "Late nights or weekends". I work a monthly wage in Europe. Working outside of work hours is completely voluntary, and if you do it, you're paid double for the time. For example, lets say you make 4000 euros a month with your contract being 40 hours a week = 100 euros a day = 12.5 euros an hour. Any work outside of 40 hours a week, you are paid 2x12,5e = 25 euros an hour.
In Canada if you worked at McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Harvey's, A&W, KFC, Taco Bell, Tim Horton's, Starbucks everyone who works for them get paid $22 an hour and are treated fairly, well and equally. They also get unlimited sick days and you have to give a doctor's note everytime your sick. You also get 3 weeks paid vacation after 1 year with the company. 4 weeks after 5 years, 5 weeks 10 years, 6 weeks 15 years, 7 weeks 20 years. this is the maximum of Paid vacation every year. You can't carry your vacation over it must be used up. As you start over again in the new year with Vacation and Sick days. You also get Paternity Leave and Maternity Leave 100% paid here in Canada for 1 year . This goes for same sex couples and straight couples and both get Paid Paternity Leave and Maternity off. We have strict labour laws including Employers must pay WSIB Premiums which is Workplace Safety Insurance Board when an employee injures themselves on the job. We also have the Canadian Occupational Health and Safety Act as well as the Ontario Human Rights Act. Also here in Canada Parents get $700 for every child they have till there 18 years old which is called the Child Tax Credit. Families also get money for Childcare which is $1000 per child if there in daycare.
Work life balance, I did, move to France, now retired there too.
Just saw your reaction and I would put my 2 cent in. But also remember that we in Denmark also pays a lot more in taxes (then comes the talk about what the taxes covers, and how we calculate taxes, for example you have state and federal taxes but that is a talk for another day).
I am a Dane, and I do believe that one the main reasons for the difference is how strong worker unions are in the different Countries.
One of the things I hear from companies in Denmark is that, they prefer you to be less at work (compared to other countries), but when you are at work you are there 100%.
So in Denmark the philosophy of most companies is if your base (home) is working you are more focused while you at work, and it reduces blunders, and blunders can be quite expensive no matter if you are a blue collar worker or a office guy.
And if you are happy at your work you will not start looking for another job.
No matter what the Company tells you, it is expensive to replace an employee and even worse do you leave for a competitor and bringing your knowledge with you.
1. You loose experience, both work experience (how many years you have done the job), and how long time you have been at the Company, each Company does things differently. You might have some courses the new guy doesn't.
2. You need someone new, the new guy, does he have your work ethics (be on time, etc.), does he "click" with his co-workers, or does the chemistry not work. etc. And it takes time to get people interviewed for the job (read the applications, 2-3 people at the interview, etc.).
3. And if you get a new guy that is what you hoped for (and not just a guy faking it at the interview), it still takes time for that person to get up to speed and "how its done around here".
I don't understand why we don't talk about our wages more with our co-workers, the only ones that benefits from us being quiet is the Company, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't talk to strangers on the internet about my salary either, but your co-workers I would, you would be surprised how many people who are doing the same job, gets paid differently.
Often when a company don't have so much to do, like seasonal work, we start sending some of our employees on courses, to gain new skills or improve those skills we already have so we are ready when there are plenty to do. In Denmark we can never compete with places like China when it comes to Salaries so we have to compete on knowledge, stability and quality.
Oh yeah I hate when the rich say we are in this boat together, no we are not, I'm in my little row-boat, and you are on a cruise ship, we might be in the same Ocean but the experience of this storm will be different.
Greetings from Denmark
As an Australian, I can't say I feel your struggle. I do empathize tho. Australia is responsible for the 3/8 balance. That's 8 hours work, 8 hours recreation & 8 hours rest. We get paid annual leave (vacation), sick leave, carer's leave, maternity leave, leave without pay & in some office jobs wellbeing days. On top of this we are known for making up any reason for another public holiday :Dsympathize
That's all well and good, for those on a 37.5 hour week...
But when you're employed on a casual basis for 30 hours per week, you get none of the paid vacation, sick leave or public holidays.
I ended up in hospital twice and was paid NOTHING by my employer. I was very lucky that the first stay was not more than 2 nights or I wouldn't have had a job to return to and the second stay was one night and I was sacked immediately, even though I had warned that I was going in for surgery.
@@EarlJohn61 Yeah you got the shit end of the stick budd. Not sure where you're from, but here casuals are on a considerably higher hourly rate. Doesn't make up the difference, but it sure doesn't hurt. Also where I am the government funds 10 days sick leave to casuals (it's a new thing).
All this aside, really am sorry you got the sack mate. That's rough.
@@EarlJohn61 Being sacked while on sick leave is "Unfair dismissal". Any lawyer would take your case. If you're elligible (low income) you can get Legal Aid to fund the case and it'll cost you nothing. As a casual you get 25% more per hour than a full/part time employee to help make up for no leave entitlements.
The Denmark comparison is a little extreme as it's a high wage economy. The UK minimum wage is currently $11.17 (at todays exchange rate) but is going up to $12.20 soon. This is for people over 23. Below that it's lower. But you need to include that there are no health insurance costs. Tax is probably lower. The first $14,000 isn't taxed in UK. And food costs are lower see Evan Edingers videos
There is no free lunch. So, someone has to pay the vacations, health care and child leave, of course. It is done with high taxes. But personally, I think it is more than worth it. It is freedom to never have to care about not being able to pay hospital bills and also to be guaranteed 5 weeks of holidays as a minimum.
Well, from France, I wish you good luck because I wouldnt like to lost my time of thinking with fighting for what should be normal.
Hi Heidi, Aussie here. Love our universal health care system. Big up Macca's workers. We don't have a minimum wage here, we have a standard wage for affordable living.
you can nail your eyebrows when i tell you that some companies,here in germany, start testing a 4 day working week,with full payment.and the first results are: the bosses are surprised and happy to see how their workers come back from a 3 day weekend,fully energized,relaxed and many fresh ideas with a smile on their faces.
In France the government tried to raise the number of hours worked in a week and the French rioted, for weeks, the government then dropped the plan.
Great video!
The thing about earning vacation days in the US. That is only if the employer and the employee has an agreement about earning a certain amount of vacation days. But here in Sweden the companies are required by law to give their employees a minimum of 25 days (5 weeks) of paid vacation. As an employee you can then negotiate for more days.
I think you would enjoy the videos "Volker Pispers history of USA and ter...ism" and "Die Anstalt - the middle east explained", they are both satirical works in german but with decent english subtitles. Greetings from Germany
May i quote an american:
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
― Mark Twain,
I get 5 weeks annual leave, I get sick leave, I had paid maternity leave, I can study leave, I can have carers leave if my kids or husband is unwell.
Since I work with the same company for 17 years I can have 6 months long service leave . I had 3 children and never pay anything in the hospital except the car park 😁hubby had heart attack we never pay anything either. I live in Melbourne Australia 🇦🇺
In Norway, we have to take out minimum 3 weeks vacation , and you get a total of 5 weeks pr year, economical compensated with 12% of what you earned previous year
The thing is, the US is actually doing what it was designed to do when it was founded. The founders only considered a specific group of people to be fully human, so they only granted rights to those people. Even though that privileged group has expanded somewhat, many people are still excluded and oppressed. So the system is working as intended, which is to uplift what the system considers to be the "ideal human" and push down the "subhuman."
That's a good point. 🤔
@@HailHeidiYes, that’s why they make sure no politician can run without major financial backing. That’s also why it’s only two major parties, can’t let a middle-class, or lower, get power.
Just imagine if the billionares lost their power!
@@HailHeidi That would have been a good point if the idea on which the statements are based was also true. But she doesn't. Here an attempt is made subliminally to blame the slave-owning society of the pre-civil war period for the current situation. In fact, it is exactly the opposite. How was the situation before 1860? The North, which had developed an early capitalist industry very similar to that in England, could not compete with the much better quality European industry. And that's why very few of these products were sold to Europe. At the same time, more and more immigrants came from Europe, unwilling to be exploited by US industry after the revolutions of 1848. The south, on the other hand, earns excellently by trading agricultural products to Europe and bought there the high-quality industrial goods that agricultural production needed. The North, sidelined at home and the federal government, barely earned taxes, which means less power. The only solution was to heavily tax this trade and force the South to buy crap made in the North. And the North, squinted at a stupid, uneducated black underclass in the South, who would be better and cheaper to exploit than the whites in the North. This is why, and only because of this, this war was waged. The blacks were free after that. So free that they were free to starve under a bridge in New England...
And, of course, this war was waged by the first imperialist president in US history. The largest false flag operation in US history...
@@melchiorvonsternberg844 I don't quite understand your contention .
Are you saying that slavery was good ?
Because it was that institution which allowed the South to compete in European markets , nothing else .
Are black people not worthy of freedom because their freedom was the cause of the decline in the South's economy ?
I think the comment about quote ' stupid , uneducated black underclass' says a lot about you and less about them and
their struggle for acceptance as human beings .
Just because their toil was the major reason the South could be competitive , does not make keeping them as slaves any more morally right .
The practice was repugnant , and at that time the entire developed world thought it was anachronistic , that it should be abolished .
And how you try to use this as a way to explain America today is disingenuous and excuses the true reason for the problem .
Greed , plain and simple .
And weak governance .
@@tonyrata4796 I'm almost afraid I'm going to have to confront you with the whole Union Phariseeism. If the US government wanted to take action against slavery, why didn't it continue to do so after the American-Tripolitan War was waged, not least because of this? The US indicated that it was making no effort to support the British in the fight against slavery. And just in case you weren't aware... The slave trade that took place with the Americas is mere shit compared to the trade that took place in Arabia and within the Muslim world in general. And it's still running today, undercover of course! The mentality of Muslims on this subject has never really changed. In Saudi Arabia, slavery was officially abolished in 1962. And the last state to allow and abolish slavery was African-Muslim Mauritania, back in 1981. And just in case you don't have that on your radar... Between 1600 and 1800 AD, Europeans were conquered by North African slavers, to the Sea and small towns in the Mediterranean 1,200,000 Europeans, kidnapped into slavery. These scumbags, went all the way up to Iceland to capture ships. Probably a fun fact that you are not aware of at all. Lincoln wasn't about slavery at all. He has stated this several times. When it seemed opportune to him, he used slavery for his purposes. In reality, the guy eaten up by mercury drugs was an imperialist. And in order to be able to continue his imperialist ideas, he first had to secure his own power base. And that meant preserving the Union at all costs. The price was 600,000 dead (almost all white Americans). And you can see that imperialist thinking very well in how it got the South to fire the first shot. This procedure is wonderfully used again and again. In the case of the USS Maine in Havana, or in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964, to Iraq in 2003. The amazing thing is that Americans keep falling for the same old trick. And then what happened after the war? The renegade states were severely punished. For up to 20 years, the Southerners lived under the occupation regime. And what changed for the blacks? They were then so free that they were free to toil as a cheap, willing and stupid underclass in the industry of the North. They were then free to live and perish under a bridge. Racial segregation continued. And by the time of idiot (and WWI war criminal) FDR, there was discriminatory legislation in 30 out of 48 states. You were and are in this context, always been a bunch of hypocrites. And for me as a European, all of this has nothing to do with black lives matter. But none of that mattered to me at all. I was more concerned that a successful separation of the South would have ensured that you would never have interfered in European affairs. The next complete idiot in the White House, Woodrow Wilson, set in motion a causal chain that will end in 150 million deaths worldwide. Mission accomplished...?
And if you have any other questions, like why we're here on earth, feel free to ask. I don't let anyone die stupid unless they specifically insist...
I'm in the process of moving to a Peru right now because life is far better there. People are far poorer there and I will be as well after a while, but the common people are far more intellectually and politically active, they have a much stronger sense of community and they are generally happier and healthier. Oh, and they're actually pleasant to be around which is more than I can say for most of the people that I meet here.
you should look at some topics that the "black forest family" have done. they are a family that moved to germany and did some really nice vids. it will open your eyes and mind even more.
greetings
A regular german viewer here: thanks for the constant good videos. I love your open minded approach to many topics. And by the way: what a cute dress you are wearing.
Keep up the good content. Greatly appreciated.
Hiya Heidi, as a British viewer I can certainly say Americans are a very warming and intelligent peoples who have advanced the world since the end of WW2 American people are probably on the whole the nicest in the world. The problem begins when it goes higher than the American citizens. Your media, corporate companies, political masters, schools, etc are the issue. It’s all about Money Money Money and the power trips that go with it. It’s called brain washing, and now Americans are realising that it costs thousands for an ambulance in the USA but it’s free of charge in Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and so forth...just one quick example for a reference.
German here and I can only fully agree with this.
I would rather pay a few quid more in my wages tax wise Zen B worried about the thousand pound bill for ringing an ambulance
@@19thcenturyman95 why? It's not a book it's a comment.
Yes that dichotomy makes it hard to discuss Amercians - because many of them are very nice people - even senior managers and CEOs when they are off the clock or in a social settings. But in a work setting they are uttter cunts and treat each other and the rest of the world so poorly.
@@19thcenturyman95 Two months since my genuine and honest opinion and comment ....I have 65 thumbs, you got nothing because you’re an ignorant farm yard animal..... have fun with your Paragraphs 😜 👍🏻
When you include things like health insurance and sales tax etc., the average American has quite a bit more of their earnings taken than countries like the UK or Germany, and they get a lot less for that money.
$9/hour is so low ! I'm currently a trainee during my 4th year of IT school and I make the equivalent of $13/hour and I only work 60%, the other 40% I'm at school. And this sum is not considered a lot, especially in Switzerland.
ALso, as someone who tried McDonald's in many countries including the US, you should try it if you go abroad one time. The US one was probably the worst of all the ones I've had unfortunately.
I am so surprised by the fact that parttime employees do not get any healthcare, vacation days, or other ‘benefits’ as they call them. Here in The Netherlands this is all arranged by law and it does not matter if you work fulltime or parttime, you always get pension, healthcare and vacation days.
70h is double the time i work per week. Damn that's hard
Living in Europe, where I am they can ask me to do overtime. However that is taxed way higher, so I just say no. They can not enforce it. I have has a situation where they said "You MUST take your vacation days. because otherwise it is seen as overtime and we do not want that. So I was not allowed to come to work. There are downsides as well. Do you know how stressful it is to plan 40 vacation days each year?
While I was working (now retired) I was entitled to 5 weeks annual leave as well as all statutory holidays such as Christmas, New Year, Easter, etc. Just before I retired I had a stroke and was off work for about 6 months, on full pay as I had accumulated a lot of sick leave entitlement. Prior to moving into management I was a union delegate and saw both sides of situations and it astounds me how US management fails to see the benefits to workplace efficiency of working together to sort problems as they arise. Such different cultures, a book I read a year or two back compared the US and NZ cultures and summarized them as the US placing freedom (define that as you will) first while NZ valued fairness and natural justice.
" a book I read a year or two back compared the US and NZ cultures and summarized them as the US placing freedom (define that as you will) first while NZ valued fairness and natural justice." There is a fundamental difference in the mentality of the two countries. The U.S. reveres individual freedom. Each to his own. Fairness and justice on the other hand, are values that holds a society together.
Australia...
The National Minimum Wage is $23.23 per hour or $882.80 per 38 hour week (before tax). Casual employees covered by the National Minimum Wage also get at least a 25% casual loading on top of that. "Tipping culture" doesn't exist here because it literally doesn't need to in order to subsidise a wage to become "livable".
Full-time employees are entitled to 4 weeks (1 month) off per year based on their ordinary hours of work, but it is common to receive 5-6 weeks (1.5 months) of vacation per year. Any accrued annual leave not used up during the year is paid when the employment ends.
If you (for whatever reason) refuse to take breaks at regular intervals, employers will force you to and actually start getting angry about it or threaten to fire you if you persist (since legally they are liable for worker mistreatment).
Paid sick days provided... for WHENEVER YOU ARE SICK.
It is not uncommon for Australian workers to refuse promotions, because the extra $$$'s are not worth the loss of free time to them with their friends and families. And fellow Australians on hearing this won't bat an eye or think that this decision was weird.
Retirement age 67 years, with full pension provided if without adequate savings or assets. Equaling around $1,096.70 per fortnight for the remainder of your life. Plus all of the aged discounts (house rates, bills, transport, pharmaceuticals etc etc).
What the US considers to be "benefits", in virtually the entirity of the rest of the world is referred to as "basic worker rights". Just BASIC... not even impressive at all.
Medicare healthcare for all citizens guaranteed. A percentage of any small bills received for medical are often reimbursed and many things are straight up free or are inconsequential amounts.
No school shootings, children can (mostly) play outside unsupervised without issue. If your kid is playing by themselves in your front yard, no neighbours will report you for "bad parenting".
You can live your entire life without ever seeing a police officer EVER either pull out a gun, or ever gesture reach for a gun, or threaten that they will pull out a gun. Plus police officers get years of training before being let out on the streets... not just 6 months with "de-escalation" being a significant part of that training.
If you take a shortcut through someone else's property... you will never get shot. Trying to kill someone for basic trespass would be considered to be astronomically excessive and psychotic. Like "this person need to go to a psychiatric institution" excessive.
If you ever hear a "loud bang"... it is machinery, car backfire, fireworks, workers on a constructions site, or a tool of some kind, or a balloon. It is not gunfire. You can go literally years without ever seeing a gun of any kind. There are no car jackings, or ATM holdups. Not only have most people never been robbed on the street, but most Australians live out their lives literally having never met anyone else who has ever been robbed on the street in Aus.
Been looking at your videos for a while. I live in western France, work as a research engineer, PhD level for various countries across E.U, and considered living in US for a long time. I visited NY, LA and have friends in other places. They all discouraged me. Price of a Big Mac in San Francisco is cheap, but in FR it is twice cheaper and i've nevr seen so many homeless people in the streets as i've seen in L.A. I heard so much criticism about "Socialism", "Communism" even. Yet, 2nd richest man in the world : french. Richest woman in the world: French. Statute of Liberty: French. I'm afraid ideology has a grasp on US to the point it is becoming dangerous.
2:01 the U.S is 31.238 trillion U.S. dollars in debt. I wouldn’t call that rich
Do you already know about this other series called: "what's clearly a scam but americans have been conditioned to believe it's normal"? Could be even more eye opening... Greetings from germany
Wait until you find out that in most countries in Europe at least , you also get paid Holiday and Christmas bonus , wich is your base monthly salary , and in some companies ( at least in Portugal) you get a bonus if the company hits their annual sales objective.
react to: "Foods That Are Banned in Europe, But Not the US"
11:52 O.O That is like 62days of work /year of overtime. You guys are built different.
You should check out videos about different countries (I'm from Australia you should check out videos from here) most other countries seem to treat their citizens better.
great reaction! new sub here, im originally from CT but moved to the uk in 2006 its interesting to me watching others discover the differences between the US and other countries. you should react to US food prices VS UK food prices as well as Mcdonalds in the US Vs the UK if you havent already. one love
honestly i am speechless, even here in West Africa(at least in my country) we do have paid vacations,parental leaves and when you are sick you are out
literally sometimes my father doesn't go to work because he is too tired
we may be a third world country but honestly i am glad that i was born here and not in the US
A few days ago I saw a comparison video about the food McDonalds in the US offers, compared to the McDonalds food in Europe. I was shocked! In Europe the standard fries are made with 3 ingridients: potatoe, oil and salt < that's it. The fries in the US have 12 ingredients and most of them I don't even know what thy are and can't translate it! For example stuff like: Dinatriumhydrogenphosphat, Tertiär-Butylhydrochinon or Polydimethylsiloxan ... wtf!? :-/ Maybe you'll find this video on youtube, check it out and react to it!? o_O
It's sad, but as soon as I saw Vids like that, I had this in my head.
We, outside the USA, aren't THAT much different we love eating crap as well but it seems to me that when we eat shit the same thing in the USA is basically dirrhea.
the "What the" during maternity benefit is priceless :D
Croatia here. So, I got pregnant and worked 5 months, started to be very difficult and doctor gave me sick days until I give birth to my child. So i stade home. Gave birth, got around 400€ from the government, 300€ from the city I live in... as a gift. Nurs came to my house once week for a month to check up on us. After I gave birth 6 month got payed my regular wage next 6 month 80% of my regular wage. Stade home for 1 year with my new baby.
Switzerland, you have 4 weeks PTO by law. Most companies give 5 (25 days plus weekends) plus public holidays that fall on Mo-Fr and you have to take 2 weeks together per year by law. Overtime is equal to time off, and if you can’t take time off, you can request them to be paid out at a rate of 125%.
If you lose your job you get 2 years of unemployment benefits. You will not go homeless or uninsured. Your life basically can go on as usual, with some more frugal spending.
you´re nice
David Cross - Why America Sucks at Everything
12:50 actually after a year of work in most places, you get the 6th paid vacation week here in Denmark.
react to: "David Cross - Why America Sucks at Everything"
the tax question is also answered there
I don't understand why U.S. citizens don't revolt against this. These are third world conditions ...
We are definitely moving to France now.
By the way... "France" includes French Polynesia and French Guiana. So you still have tropical beaches and a top tier military.
I had a "great" salary job in the US. Phenomenal healthcare. Vacation and holidays were 30+ days a year... except I was in the computer field, so every holiday was when I could actually do my work (because no one else was working and it was safe to make changes). I was there 12 years. I was on call 24/7/365 for ten of those years. And If I worked all weekend saving their ass?... better be warming that seat on Monday. It was absurd.
Completely unrelated, I'm kinda an accent nerd, and I can't place yours. You say you're American, but you sound... Swiss? Did you grow up abroad?
Bienvenue en France 🥰
First time i`ve seen your reacton . I`m from Romania, and i just subscribed you.
13:12 That's exploitation. Here in Europe each country has a minimum of vacation days the employer has to provide by law. Here in Germany everyone has to get 24 payed vacation days per year (if you're working 6 days per week) or 20 days (if you work 5 days per week). This is the absolute minimum and the employer cannot ignore this. Most companies do in fact provide more vacation days in their contracts (25-30 is the average).
Employers actually have to ensure that every employee does in fact take their vacation (though that is one of the things where reality slightly differs from the law).
Public holidays are on top of this and here in Germany they differ by state between 9 to 15. These additional day are on top of the vacation days. That said - sometimes these holidays unfortunately fall on the weekend which is free anyways so it is not always an additional day off work.
Example: New Year's Day is a public holiday where no one has to work (well - most people; there are always a few exceptions of course). However this day can of course be a saturday or sunday.
Other holidays are always free because they are not on a specific date - Good Friday and Easter Monday for example are always a friday and a monday and are therefore always additional free days.
14:25 Not the case in Europe as well. We have laws in place to protect the workers from abuse and exploitation like this. The length of the work week is limited to 48 hours per week, the work day is limited to a maximum of 10 hours and there has to be a gap of at least 11 hours between shifts. Note that this only applies to employees though, not to people who are self employed.
Here in Germany we also have what is called Tarifverträge (nope has nothing to do with tariffs ;-) ) which are negotiated by the unions on behalf of the employees. Unions are large in Germany btw - what you call a union in the USA on a company level is not a union in Germany, that is what we call a worker's council. Unions cover entire sectors - my union, Ver.Di, covers employees of these sectors: trade, postal, banking, media, public services, transport and traffic. Ver.Di is Germany's second largest union with 2.1 million members after IG Metall (representing manufacturing, mining and steel) with 2.3 million members.
19:40 Not America. The USA. America is a continent with a lot of different countries - even if you exclude South America (12 countries) and the Carribean (13 countries, which are in fact considered to be North American). Mainland North America alone has 10 countries (Canada, the USA, Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Belize, El Salvador and Panama).
Yes, taxes are higher. However - you get public serices in return that cover many things US americans have to pay out of their own pockets anyway (like health insurance for example). This means that in reality US americans on average spend more of their paycheck than people in Europe or many other countries, not less.
PS: That pledge of allegiance thing is really dangerous. We did that in Germany as well, mostly between the years 1933 and 1945.
Love all this insight, thank you!! And yes, I'm learning and trying to get into the habit of saying US instead of America. Growing up in a country that thinks they're the most important country in the americas doesn't help. 😅💜
I don't know what it's like in America. But in some other countries there are trade unions and tariffs, to which the companies are bound. Therefore, there is no Wallmarkt in Germany. He had withdrawn from Germany after the conditions. They did not want to struggle with trade unions.