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Comment by masterleep | Hacker News Reader

Just what the economy needs: additional legal risk and associated expense for employing people.

Whether you like it or not, the US economy is going to get first-world worker protections, even if it needs to be dragged kicking and screaming (GDP be damned).

Kicking and screaming is the only way US business forfeits anything. We fought a civil war over slavery, for god's sake.

"Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing … after they have exhausted all other possibilities."

This is pretty optimistic. If I've learned anything over the past 10-15 years it's that there are a lot of stupid people voting against their interests in the US.

You can have mandatory paid leave without additional risks for the employers. In Germany for example the paid leave is partly paid for by the health insurance and partly by taxes.

All the employer has to deal with is not to see the employee for a few months, but good management should have plans for that case anyway (e.g. dealing with sickess/accidents).

The German attitude to work is entirely different (better), though.

I worked closely with a German boss for a few years, and the difference is ultra palpable. The entire way of working plans for sane hours (even when this is a struggle to make work), ample time to eat/rest while at work, plenty of vacation time (and no emails or bothering during that time or any time other than standard work hours where the employee is physically present at work), sick time, and time to get organized for projects. Meetings are viewed as last resorts because they're time/energy costly and typically low-productivity. Projects that don't fit that mold are put on hold until there's time for them.

The American style is closer to "fuck you for thinking about slacking".

Man, I gotta find me a German boss.

Just depends where you work. I work 2-3 days a week and get paid for 5. This is in America. Hacker news is such an echo chamber for American hate.

Conversely, there are plenty of people who work for 7 days and get paid for 5. Anecdotes don't change the fact that labor protections are nonexistent and desperately needed in the US.

Not arguing that but someone offer a German example so I'm offering an American one.

Obviously your situation is the exception, not the norm. I've worked a lot of jobs and met a lot of people, I can't name one person with such an arrangement. Even the self-employed folks that I know don't enjoy that amount of leisure time. You're very lucky. What line of work are you in?

Systems admin.

That might work for a large company for somebody in customer service since it is not that hard to get a replacement.

It is absolutely going to be a huge issue with the company if it is the programmer who built system X and she is going to leave for a year.

And that doesn't even touch the discrimination against those who don't want children in the first place.

Economy exists to serve the people, not the other way around. Making a "perfect" economy through the medium of miserable workers is failure.

They are not entities as such. If we granulated things such that everyone was self employed, some people would forgo self given benefits and some people would take all their self given benefits. Of course in this case people would be making that decision themselves, rather than a company.

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