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A comment on Why the Cure for a Sluggish Economy Is Actually Longer Vacations. Parent comment

Re:Why the Cure for a Sluggish Economy Is Actually Longer Va... by briandear on Thursday November 12, 2015 @12:44PM (#10554686)
Who pays for that vacation? France has very generous vacation and their economy is stagnant. They even have a 35 hour workweek established based in the same premise. It hasn't worked. The economy is growing less than under Sarkozy.

We could also make the argument that cutting taxes would spur more spending. If you increase my disposable income, I'll buy some new studio monitors and an Allen & Heath mixer.

Just increasing vacation time results in a higher labor cost and thus raises prices, negating the benefit.

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Re:Why the Cure for a Sluggish Economy Is Actually Longer Va... by a_c_s on Thursday November 12, 2015 @12:54PM (#10554779)
France's 'standard of living' (measured in material goods) is quite high globally-speaking and not significantly lower than that of the USA.

If you include intangibles like quality healthcare and reasonable amounts of vacation time, then I'd argue that France is far wealthier than the US.

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Re:Why the Cure for a Sluggish Economy Is Actually Longer Va... by jpapon on Thursday November 12, 2015 @01:36PM (#10555140)
Germany also has very generous vacation, 12 months of paternity/maternity leave, etc... and their economy is doing just fine.

I guarantee if you asked Americans if they would trade their 2.5% (or whatever) economic growth for Germany's 1% in exchange for 20 days guaranteed vacation per year, most would say "hell yes". The people who wouldn't take the trade are those rich enough to not need the vacation.

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Re:Why the Cure for a Sluggish Economy Is Actually Longer Va... by s73v3r on Thursday November 12, 2015 @06:23PM (#10556919)
It has not been shown that higher labor costs raise prices a significant amount. During the debate over Seattle raising wages, it was shown that increased wages would add very little to the cost of fast food meals.
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Re:Why the Cure for a Sluggish Economy Is Actually Longer Va... by SixSigma on Thursday November 12, 2015 @01:33PM (#10555121)
Those simple minded fools with their 35 hour work week, healthcare, paternity leave and 30 days holiday ! Who are they fooling?

Not me, I'm going to buy some expensive speakers

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