Some stories, you just have no idea how to improve on. The irony and satire is so implicit in the fact pattern that any commentary seems somewhat strained by comparison. One struggles to unify the themes, only to find them so intricately locked in a matrix that to move them is to detract from the whole. For instance:
A law
Invented at Disney World
Requiring medium and larger firms
To offer paid vacation
To make the economy more efficient
Behold:
Rep. Alan Grayson was standing in the middle of Disney World when it hit him: What Americans really need is a week of paid vacation.
So on Thursday, the Florida Democrat will introduce the Paid Vacation Act — legislation that would be the first to make paid vacation time a requirement under federal law.
The bill would require companies with more than 100 employees to offer a week of paid vacation for both full-time and part-time employees after they’ve put in a year on the job. Three years after the effective date of the law, those same companies would be required to provide two weeks of paid vacation, and companies with 50 or more employees would have to provide one week.
The idea: More vacation will stimulate the economy through fewer sick days, better productivity and happier employees.
This is, of course, why French industry dominates the European continent.
Alan Grayson to introduce Paid Vacation Act [Politico]
Germany dominates the continents economy, and they have mandatory vacation, not to the extent of France, but pretty similar. They also have national health insurance.
This would never happen in a country like Texas.
Am US citizen who lives in Europe, working in financial services. Work much harder than most Europeans but not quite as hard as my US (esp. NYC) counterparts.
Having said that, US laws (and Company policies) on paid vacation are pathetic. While it may not necessarily be helpful from an economic perspective (open for debate), makes a huge difference to quality of life.
Classic 70′s era bush. Almost forgot what it looked like.
@3
European poser.
Some of his donors- heavy on labor and baby making. Check out the UAW on the list…they will get plenty vacation time
1 IDT Corp
2 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
3 American Federation of Teachers
3 Service Employees International Union
3 Teamsters Union
6 Flo-Sun Inc
7 Human Rights Campaign
8 Poet & Designer
9 American Assn for Justice
9 American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees AmeriPAC: The Fund for a Greater America
9 AT&T Inc
9 BRIDGE PAC
9 Carpenters & Joiners Union 9 Central Florida Afl-Cio Member Edu
9 Communications Workers of America
9 Ironworkers Union
9 Laborers Union
9 Machinists/Aerospace Workers Union
9 NARAL Pro-Choice America
9 National Air Traffic Controllers Assn 9 National Assn of Letter Carriers9 National Assn of Realtors
9 National Education Assn
9 New Democrat Coalition
9 Operating Engineers Union
9 Painters & Allied Trades Union
9 Planned Parenthood
9 Plumbers/Pipefitters Union
9 Sheet Metal Workers Union
9 United Auto Workers
viva la liberals! (not serious)
Though I do think we could use more state-imposed work rules. Quality of life is key, along with bottle service.
@4 – I see what you did there….
-tgfD
(the guy from Detroit)
@2
Texan poser.
Yeah I lived in Germany and I loved the mandatory vacations, like in August when stores closed and no one could get anything…..wonderful. Making paid vacation mandatory is communistic.
You mean there are companies who don’t offer any paid vacation time? I thought the 19th Century was over a long time ago.
(This has nothing to do with your company paying your vacation to Disney World.)
The solution, of course (bring the hate) is to make everyone an independent contractor (or something along those lines).
Mandatory vacations would certainly stimulate the economy of the 8th district of Florida. So as usual, there’s less here than meets the eye. A congressman spins a monumental boondoggle favoring local business interests as being of actual benefit to country?? This is just the traditional sweet, juicy legislative bacon and ham.
Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask your employer what it has done for you lately.
Good grief. Here’s EP trying to horrify us with the idea we might (gasp) have practices that would make life in NYC more like Paris…or London…or Stockholm…
And here is the whole board saying one way or another DO IT.
I’m sure the no-European-living here concept would go down over at Rapture Ready.com or Rush Limbaugh.com with a Net audience whose vacations are taken in Lake Waco if at all, but we’ve all been to Europe many times or we wouldn’t be reading Dealb. Goodness, all of us have seen strikes there and survived them. We’ve seen European streets full of rich folks and European streets full of poor old folks who live in one room and eat continual spaghetti on their governments’ dime and merely admire the rich folks’ clothes rather than starving in a ditch and going radical. Try something else.
just drop the employees into several subsidiaries each with 99 employees and set up inter-company service agreeemnts between EmployeeCo and OpCo. Problem solved and another win for the back office.
Chinese factory laborer here you cockfag round-eye gwai lo’s,
I am organizing a movement in my 16-person dorm room hut to ask Chairman Mao for TWO bathroom breaks during my 16 hour work shift..
I really fucking hate making these Spongebob Square pants tootbrushes…
American pussies..
I didn’t realize Delta Burke’s husband was doing porn.
Now that’s a merkin!
Gee – commentary is so very funny because see we’d never want Americans to have paid vacation for all (you yes – but not everyone) and we’d never want FED accountibility either. No coverage of other Grayson story:
Alan Grayson is trying to bring Democrats on board on a congressional bill to audit the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve has refused multiple inquiries from both the House and the Senate to disclose who is receiving trillions of dollars from the central banking system. The Federal Reserve has redacted the central terms of the no-bid contracts it has issued to Wall Street firms like Blackrock and PIMCO, without disclosure required of the Treasury, and is participating in new and exotic programs like the trillion-dollar TALF to leverage the Treasury’s balance sheet. With discussions of allocating even more power to the Federal Reserve as the ‘systemic risk regulator’ of the credit markets, more oversight over the central bank’s operations is clearly necessary.”
So let’s just snark about his paid vacation act AND then complain/obsess endlessly about “safecrackers” and the fed. I feel better now – cause i can display my amazing sardonic wit AND pile on in the race to discredit Grayson.
What I really want is more work, no vacation and a completely out of control Fed. See how smart and funny I am!
@ 19 – nice work on the OTHER Grayson story
http://www.anti-federalist.org
I guess EP doesn’t get any paid vacation. DBreaker is such a sweat shop!
You guys need to form a union! I’m telling you.. it’s the only way to fight this greedy corporations.. you’re telling me that in this 21 century, there’s a company that doesn’t give you paid vacation? what kinda of greedy smuchk are they? OMG !
I am now dumber for having read this
another thing to add,
Thanks Rep Grayson, for making the obvious into law, same thing like “eating a nice juicy burger is every American’s rights!!” Let’s put that into law!! or how about everybody should be entitled the right to buy a T-Shirts and the company making T-Shirts should sell them, otherwise let’s put them to JAIL!
BTW, freakin FED should always be INDEPENDENT!!! No 19 is the proof how idiot people can be!
@21
Looks like EP tried to raise horror at the idea of paid vacation time in vain.
Try something else. Right on #19 and #21!
@ 21 EP puts her first post up at about 11-ish and by “puts her first post up” what I really mean is she cuts and pastes the work of real journalists, slaps them between 2 dotted lines, and attaches 1-6 sentences of non-witty commentary. The whole damn gig is a vacation.
Bess is another story – someone should do a 20-20 expose on that shiznit
AB – you are my hero (for today). Year 3 you will have to form several more subs and breakout your 99 employees into groups of 49 or less, but that is easily accomplished by filing a few more forms in Delaware.
@ 19 – nice work on the OTHER Grayson story
http://www.anti-federalist.org
Make it mandatory for every sitting/prospective member of congress to felate their entire constituency before they can take their seat. To be a committee head, you must be sure to fully address the anus.
That’s some legislation we could all agree on. More at ease public, and weed out the wanna be legislators.
-BeckyBlumpkinFan
@23, i love when the idiots call other people the idiots. “eating a hamburger” law is a comparable analogy? Really? Yahoo finance wants their spammers back.
HAHA!!
who’s the yahoo finance spammer? people who wants the fed to be controled by the govt?
@23
@tax chick – Just trying to keep tax accountants, corporate lawyers and delaware office buildings busy – it’s how I make the world a better place.
So-smart-in-the-ways-of-the-world 23:
(Sigh) Yes, we all know the supposed role of the FED. We’re way beyond that “independent FED” stuff aren’t we; now discussing increasing FED regulatory from large to super-size. So they can be more independent, i’m sure (wink, wink)
Your definition of “freakin FED independence” = no transparency, no accounting, lots of Treasury collaborating in vain QE and debt monetization efforts.
And you’re right — don’t question the success of FED — it’s all under control. SUBPRIME IS CONTAINED!
Your humble grasshopper 19
Wait – does anyone NOT get at least two weeks of paid vacation a year? What the hell sort of country is this?
I’ve lived/worked here for almost 10 years, and it never occurred to me that there were full time jobs which didn’t get paid vacation. That’s just weird. I bet none of those jobs pay more than $50k.
@ 23
While I agree that it is desirable for the Federal Reserve Bank to remain independent, Grayson just wants it to operate with increased Congressional oversight and more transparency (a concept Obama campaigned on for whatever that’s worth) which doesn’t seem to be an egregious request considering the unprecedented and ever-expanding “regulatory activities”.
From where I stand, (without my head up my ass) it would appear that the FED could operate more transparently with increased oversight while preserving its independence. Looks as though those concepts aren’t mutally exclusive.
Take care not to fart or you might blow your eardrums out.
Get down,
HH
33 I was thinking the same thing. I suspect that the only toil that doesnt come with a paid vacation is day labor by illegals. And that’s not a full time job. More like a series of temp assignments.
33 You know, in most of the country $50K is killing it. That said, in most of the country $129,000 will buy you a nice house and spending more than $50 on a restaurant dinner for two is extravagant. I could go on and on. You must never have been out of the Northeast.
Oh yeah.
EP – This shit was weak. Guest 19 just ate your lunch.
@19 – Thanks for preventing this thread from collapsing under the groaning weight of its own stupidity. Nice work.
34 and 19,
So you think congress would be the “appropriate” entity to oversee the Fed? you being serious? congress? Had they made Macro/MicroEcon 101 to be a requirement for your folks in congress, I’d have been more open to this asinine idea.
I’m not against greater transparency but congress oversight? you gotta be kidding.
@38
Ghostbusters aren’t available. So you else you gonna call?
You say “your congress” — are you not American? The idea is for Congress to force FED transparency so then public (you, me, all) can looky see. ANd no I won’t need to wait around to get Frank or Dodd opinion, I can try to figure it out myself. See that’s how transparency works OR we can go with your suggestion – just sit around and do nothing.
So you’re suggesting giving more power to barney and the gang to control the fed. and how do you suggest you as the public should influence the fed? how many of you, “the public”, are crazy nuts with no knowledge of economy whatsoever?
So come the time the fed has to take the punchbowl away (ie, increasing rate, reduce lending, etc), what do you think barney and the gang would do? what do you think the “smart public” in this case would do?
Fed needs to be independent for a reason. There’s a reason why America has the biggest economy. Look at other countries where the fed is controlled by the govt. How about Zimbabwe?
I would go farther and suggest the European model whereby the whole danm continent shuts down for August. Just close up shop and head for the beach. That’s the way to live life…
Is that naked guy French?
Erin Burnett would love him no matter how lunatic as long as he is French.
Geez, here in Canada, all employers must pay employees – full time or temps – 4% vacation pay each year. Some let you take paid vacation; some pay you a lump sum, either every paycheque or annually.
Doesn’t seem to have killed our economy; we’re getting fallout from US problems, but we’re in better shape fiscally on both debt and budget levels. And, just as Henry Ford paid wages high enough so that his workers could afford his cars, the time off allows more of us to work in travel/vacation/leisure sectors, which, last time I looked are hard to outsource.