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I think we also need to realize that life isn't always fair, and just because one person has a job that gives them 12 weeks a year off, it's just not feasible foreveryone to get that, no more than it's feasible for everyone to make a seven figure salary.
Personally I think that most people will do nothing to better themselves if things are just handed to them. That's why capitalism works and socialism doesn't.
I do think we need to do something. But raising taxes for everyone so that a VERY SMALL (10%) group of people who are uninsured (many because they simply think they are healthy and don't want to spend the cash on insurance or choose to spend their money on things like a $20 a day cigarette habit and then claim poverty) is NOT the way to make it happen. I've stated already what must be done.
1. The government needs to stop requiring hopitals/medical facilities to provide any medical services to illegal immigrants. The service is non-reimbursable by the government, and to mandate they provide non-reimbursable services or lose all medi funding only hurts everyone else with increased costs.
2. Put a cap on the crazy fees that attorney's are making on medical malpractice cases.
3. The government has to allow companies and individuals to band together to buy health insurance as a consortium/coop under group plans, and force insurers to recognize these consortiums/coops as if they were businesses for rating purposes.
4. Most importantly we need to reform the laws governing the sale of health insurance in various states so that it's done on a federal level. If they are licensed to sell in one state, they will be able to sell in all. This will loosen the monopolistic stranglehold that a handful of insurers have in many states, and lower premiums.
5. Force everyone to buy into at least a basic plan, whether they want to or not, unless they can prove other coverage through a spouse or one of the medi's.
If all of this were done, everyone would be able to afford basic health insurance or would be covered under the medi's.
Actually, I don't think your 5 ideas are so bad either. Contrary to how I may have put it, I actually only want to see a public "option" for those otherwise shut out and not "single payer".....I think our system is too entrenched to completely change over easily and I also think the lucky folks who have good insurance would actually "get less" on single payer, it's just that there's too many with "nothing" right now. That said:
A) I wholeheartedly agree with #1 and #2 above.
B) #3 --> I would agree if there'd be some way for individuals to band together, which I think would be difficult. My take (sort of like the "trigger" option in one of the proposed bills) is to have a public option if this doesn't happen.
C) #4 --> Only problem with this (if I understand it right) is that this would allow the state with the "loosest" laws on selling insurance to essentially be the "federal insurance law". If one state allows pre-existing conditions to be a barrier to insurance, then they all would, right? (albeit, it can go too far the other way too....my home state of NY is almost impossible to get even semi-affordable individual insurance in because of strict laws that cause most companies to either not sell or it sell it expensively).
D) #5 --> I liked when Massachusetts did this, but I'm torn. On one hand, how do you handle people who really still can't afford it, or who feel the "penalty" is cheaper than insurance. But on the other hand, if everyone has to have insurance, the insurance companies themselves have less need to discriminate and rates would go down.
Quote:
Originally Posted by annerk
I think we also need to realize that life isn't always fair, and just because one person has a job that gives them 12 weeks a year off, it's just not feasible foreveryone to get that, no more than it's feasible for everyone to make a seven figure salary.
Personally I think that most people will do nothing to better themselves if things are just handed to them. That's why capitalism works and socialism doesn't.
I agree but it is not in the American nature to completely take advantage of people or leave them "completely in the cold" either. As an example, whether you think that the current extensions of unemployment insurance are too long (I don't in these extreme times, but I think this extension being proposed should be the last), I think few would think we shouldn't have any "safety net" at all. While it can be argued what the minimum wage should be, I don't think anyone would say it should be 10 cents/hour
Capitalism works for sure (does anyone want to be the way Russia was in the early 90s? I'm not even thinking all the political repression, just how inefficient their ecomomy became), but that doesn't mean there's a few extreme excesses where society makes laws to curb. We have an SEC to eliminate abuse in the stock market, but we can still otherwise have a free, innovative, successful market. We have Social Security and Medicare as a supplement without being a complete handout.
This is about me valuing vacation time, and wanting to know if there are companies in the US that offer generous PTO packages, and now I'm getting attacked for it and being labeled anti-American.
Forget it, if all I'm going to endure here is bashing because of my apparently blasphemous views.
You may not see it that way, but you pretty much started your thread with full on bashing mode, so what do you expect to get? It's the honey vs vinegar thing, ever heard of that?
Id like to add some counterpoints to some of these posts to illustrate the other side, and, to answer your burning question about time off.
To the person who works for a non profit and said they typically give you 4 wks off... I am not sure who you work for or your geographic location, but what you shared is your experience and not the norm everywhere. I am in NC and work for a International non-profit org, a very well respected one, we only get 2 wks off. I can tell you that while I love knowing my hard work directly impacts another person who had less than me, I'd also like to have more time off. Reason: I am tired, stressed, over-worked, and cannot keep up with all the personal projects I have to do, like regular maintenance on my home, can't get time off to be there long enough! And, every holiday I find I have to bring work home as well as a couple of days/wk.
To answer the Op Q, many companies here realize the value of giving their employees time to vacation, and still have time left over to volunteer, work on their home, travel, whatever. You will find that many universities start you off with 4 wks vacation a yr. This increases to 6 after 6 yrs. And, your closing statement about taxes, I took it to be a generalization, because you are not entirely accurate, you missed out so many key, and more costly programs - with the exception of the Iraq War and Afganistan situation. Taxes go to many social programs, state grants for infrastructure and other projects, and so many more meaningful purposes. i think your post was fair, your choice of wording maybe not the best in order not to offend some. Americans on the whole (NOT ALL), compared to some Europeans, are not used to challenging debate about their culture - unless they are well-traveled and/or have engaged in healthy debate. They take is as an affront. However, I imagine you are bilingual, maybe young? Many people cannot state their case this way and they only speak English!
And to the folks who are deathly afraid of any European style programs over here, Chillax!! She is not America bashing. I say to you that before you go any further with your criticisms, fully understand what you are comparing the US to. Most people only go by the sound bites they get from mainstream media. Trust me, it's not enough info for you to make an informed decision. Just because someone reports info on tv with confidence, maybe shouts a little, it doesn't make it the truth! Do some traveling (international means out of the US) Meet local people in their environment, ask about their culture. As an American, you'll be asked lots about yours. Read about European history and up to present day, maybe start with the last 200 yrs, rather than 2,000+. Understand what you are criticizing. Tracy, you talk about going back to our freedoms. Remember, the freedoms were won by people who were mostly Europeans. We are all connected, chill
Having said this, I am not proposing European programs here. But we can learn from them. There might be components we can take and make our own. I am opposed to a social welfare system/state, and I think the US system is better. However, it does need improvements, and trust me...there are more people on welfare and cheating it than you would like to know about. But, I digress What is so wrong with giving an employee more than 2 wks off?! I can't help but wonder if this contributes to our shorter life span. We don't lead the world in this.
I agree with the OP. I think 2 weeks off is too little. If you have children or elderly parents (needing to be taken to dr etc.) your time off can get eaten up very quickly. That said, 2 weeks is standard in the US for most positions until you've reached the 5 year point and like others have said, I don't really see that changing anytime soon. (I WISH it would!) Some jobs are great and may offer more, but outside of teaching, they are pretty few and far between. Again, I think that's too little. I am personally really feeling the pinch of that right now, but it is what it is. If you want to work in the US, that's the way things are typically structured for most companies.
I agree with the OP. I think 2 weeks off is too little. If you have children or elderly parents (needing to be taken to dr etc.) your time off can get eaten up very quickly. That said, 2 weeks is standard in the US for most positions until you've reached the 5 year point and like others have said, I don't really see that changing anytime soon. (I WISH it would!) Some jobs are great and may offer more, but outside of teaching, they are pretty few and far between. Again, I think that's too little. I am personally really feeling the pinch of that right now, but it is what it is. If you want to work in the US, that's the way things are typically structured for most companies.
By law, if you're salaried/exempt, an employer can't dock your pay for taking a "partial" day off if you need it for things like Dr. appts. Now if you have a bank of PTO, they can do it from that, but if you use it up, they still have to give you the "partial" day with pay.
Of course, if your employer sees "abuse" they will try to find some BS way to let you go on "performance" grounds, etc. But it is actually a pretty common DOL grievence and judges tend to be pretty "employee friendly" on these suits. The punishment if a company is convicted is they have to go look back at the hours worked by all salaried employees over the past 2 years and pay them any "overtime". And they are no longer allowed to have any "salaried" employees.
But in jobs I've been in in the past that is how a lot of people handled Dr. appts. My last employer actually had a pretty fair policy on this; anything less than 1/2 day (unless mgmt deemed it "excessive") did not get taken off of your PTO, but 1/2 day or more did. So if you had to go out to the dr. for 2 hours from time to time you weren't penalized in any way, especially given that overtime was fairly common.
By law, if you're salaried/exempt, an employer can't dock your pay for taking a "partial" day off if you need it for things like Dr. appts. Now if you have a bank of PTO, they can do it from that, but if you use it up, they still have to give you the "partial" day with pay.
Of course, if your employer sees "abuse" they will try to find some BS way to let you go on "performance" grounds, etc. But it is actually a pretty common DOL grievence and judges tend to be pretty "employee friendly" on these suits. The punishment if a company is convicted is they have to go look back at the hours worked by all salaried employees over the past 2 years and pay them any "overtime". And they are no longer allowed to have any "salaried" employees.
But in jobs I've been in in the past that is how a lot of people handled Dr. appts. My last employer actually had a pretty fair policy on this; anything less than 1/2 day (unless mgmt deemed it "excessive") did not get taken off of your PTO, but 1/2 day or more did. So if you had to go out to the dr. for 2 hours from time to time you weren't penalized in any way, especially given that overtime was fairly common.
Well, it my case, I am paid by the hour. We have sick days and vacation days basically. I can take sick time for my own dr.s appointments but not my mother's. At least, that is MY understanding. We can take 2 personal days off IF we have not used up all our sick time. (This comes out of our sick days, in other words.) I prefer a pool of PTO days, not designated one or the other, but that's not the way it's structured where I currently am employed.
My former employer, on the other hand, paid very well but gave no paid sick time at all. Vacation was one week the first year, two after that~ so no additional there either. If it irritated me and sometimes it did, I just tried to remind myself that I was being paid pretty well, however.
By law, if you're salaried/exempt, an employer can't dock your pay for taking a "partial" day off if you need it for things like Dr. appts. Now if you have a bank of PTO, they can do it from that, but if you use it up, they still have to give you the "partial" day with pay.
Of course, if your employer sees "abuse" they will try to find some BS way to let you go on "performance" grounds, etc. But it is actually a pretty common DOL grievence and judges tend to be pretty "employee friendly" on these suits. The punishment if a company is convicted is they have to go look back at the hours worked by all salaried employees over the past 2 years and pay them any "overtime". And they are no longer allowed to have any "salaried" employees.
But in jobs I've been in in the past that is how a lot of people handled Dr. appts. My last employer actually had a pretty fair policy on this; anything less than 1/2 day (unless mgmt deemed it "excessive") did not get taken off of your PTO, but 1/2 day or more did. So if you had to go out to the dr. for 2 hours from time to time you weren't penalized in any way, especially given that overtime was fairly common.
I'm salaried and I don't have PTO, vacation time, etc. I take the time off when I want/need it. I'm semi-off today, getting some work done at home and also dealing with some personal stuff. I'll end up working Sunday to make up for missing today and tomorrow at the office, but that's what being salaried is all about.
I'm salaried and I don't have PTO, vacation time, etc. I take the time off when I want/need it. I'm semi-off today, getting some work done at home and also dealing with some personal stuff. I'll end up working Sunday to make up for missing today and tomorrow at the office, but that's what being salaried is all about.
Well PTO (be it vacation, sick, personal days, etc.) is technically not required by law, but if your employer is not offering you a "bank" of PTO they can only "dock" your salaried pay when you take a full day off. If you take a partial day off (defined as working but doing so for less than 8 hours) they have to pay you what you normally get for a "full" day. If they are doing otherwise for your being "semi-off" today, they are breaking the law; what if anything you want to do about it is another matter. The reason this is the law is exactly because you do not get paid extra for "making it up" on Sunday or days where you work more (especially substantially more) than 8 hours.
Well PTO (be it vacation, sick, personal days, etc.) is technically not required by law, but if your employer is not offering you a "bank" of PTO they can only "dock" your salaried pay when you take a full day off. If you take a partial day off (defined as working but doing so for less than 8 hours) they have to pay you what you normally get for a "full" day. If they are doing otherwise for your being "semi-off" today, they are breaking the law; what if anything you want to do about it is another matter. The reason this is the law is exactly because you do not get paid extra for "making it up" on Sunday or days where you work more (especially substantially more) than 8 hours.
I think you misunderstood. My paycheck comes every week. It's the same every week. I don't get vacation days, sick days, etc., and I don't get docked for not being at work.
I work when and how I want to work, as long as my job gets done. I'm paid to do a specific job, I can get that job done in a typical 35-40 hour week, and I don't need to account for my hours. If I want a day off, I take it. If I want a week off, I take it. It doesn't affect my paycheck.
If I can get my work done in 20 hours a week, the rest of the time I can do what I want. Right now I'm on a deadline for something, so I will need to get some work done on Sunday, because it's the next free time I have.
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Meet local people in their environment, ask about their culture. As an American, you'll be asked lots about yours. Read about European history and up to present day, maybe start with the last 200 yrs, rather than 2,000+. Understand what you are criticizing. Tracy, you talk about going back to our freedoms. Remember, the freedoms were won by people who were mostly Europeans. We are all connected, chill
) Some jobs are great and may offer more, but outside of teaching, they are pretty few and far between. Again, I think that's too little. I am personally really feeling the pinch of that right now, but it is what it is. If you want to work in the US, that's the way things are typically structured for most companies.
