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I don't know why I bother sometimes. Maybe I'm eternally optimistic.
The optimism seems to lie mainly in you Americans (unintentionally?) misrepresenting things to make your country look better than it really is. And that applies to everything from working hours, employee rights and salaries to health-care, education, costs of living, crime rates, overall development, economy and several other things. I haven't seen a single thing yet where the US actually does better than other countries, on the contrary.
Sometimes on the surface the US does not seem so bad after all like all the laws to protect employees but when you dig a little deeper nothing of that is true in practice.
It is a little awkward that the country who sees itself as the best in everything is actually doing the worst in everything.
Well, I think you are also right. The Wal-Mart next to I-15 here is mostly middle class as it is mostly military families, most of whom are from elsewhere in the country. Therefore, I think Wal-Mart truly does have less of a stigma elsewhere than here. Out of state transplants do love Wal-mart regardless of their background.
Walmart has a stigma attached to it, but a great deal of its success has to do with where they place their stores.
I was originally from a suburb of St. Louis, and everyone in the closer suburbs would avoid Walmart if they were middle class or higher because they preferred stores like Target. In some of the further out suburbs, however, Walmart was the only store that opened in some of the towns, so everyone would go there simply because they didn't want to waste time driving to Target. The same is true for many parts of rural/small town America; everyone shops there because there's nowhere else to go.
Walmart is becoming more invasive, however, as they want to break into the urban markets. They've been opening Walmart Expresses here in Chicago, which are essentially mini versions of just the grocery store sections of their supercenters, and they've been opening them in popular neighborhoods like West Loop and Lakeview. There isn't a lack of small corner stores and or normal grocery stores in these neighborhoods either, but they're successful because they're convenient to run in and grab something basic instead of going into the large full service grocery stores like Jewel.
Anyway, I apologize if someone had mentioned this already since I only skimmed part of the thread, but that's my 2¢.
The optimism seems to lie mainly in you Americans (unintentionally?) misrepresenting things to make your country look better than it really is. And that applies to everything from working hours, employee rights and salaries to health-care, education, costs of living, crime rates, overall development, economy and several other things. I haven't seen a single thing yet where the US actually does better than other countries, on the contrary.
Sometimes on the surface the US does not seem so bad after all like all the laws to protect employees but when you dig a little deeper nothing of that is true in practice.
It is a little awkward that the country who sees itself as the best in everything is actually doing the worst in everything.
What is your extremely negative POV about the US rooted in? I mean, it's obviously not rooted in facts, since you're constantly proven to be wrong across many threads on this forum, from a factual perspective.
Do you honestly, honestly think that your constantly negative, over the top, and often blatantly untrue statements about the US are an accurate picture of the country as a whole?
My comment wasn't about Europe or anywhere in particular. It was pointing out that yes, some people do work 60 or more hours a week with no OT. I imagine it's the same in most places.
The conversation in this thread was focusing on people who need only one job and how the law covers them.
People seemed to be forgetting the working poor.
Well, yes, I guess some people do work over 40 hours a week with no overtime. I've never stated otherwise. And in fact, some people work over 40 hours a week at ONE job without overtime pay (not the majority but it's true in some jobs).
The working poor are in just about every society, unfortunately. And in every society, some get paid overtime...and some don't. It depends on many factors.
The optimism seems to lie mainly in you Americans (unintentionally?) misrepresenting things to make your country look better than it really is.
And the pessimism seems to lie in assuming that what may be true for one person, in one city, in the US, is true for everyone across the country. And all of these assumptions are negative, because you want to believe that the US is a terrible, depraved, backwards place.
If you know someone who works 60 hours per week, you assume that the average American works 60 hours a week.
If you hear that some people lack health insurance, you assume that the majority of Americans also lack health insurance.
If you read that some American employees do not get overtime pay, you assume that overtime is just not paid in the US.
You only need to read back a few pages in this thread to find these kinds of assumptions and more.
Quote:
It is a little awkward that the country who sees itself as the best in everything is actually doing the worst in everything.
"The country" does not see itself as anything. Rather, 300 million people individually view their lives and their country in different ways. There are certainly some people who think the US is the best. There are more who acknowledge that the US has lots of problems. But it's a little unfair and biased--isn't it?--to say that the "US is the worst in everything." So Europe is the best in everything, ahem?
And the pessimism seems to lie in assuming that what may be true for one person, in one city, in the US, is true for everyone across the country. And all of these assumptions are negative, because you want to believe that the US is a terrible, depraved, backwards place.
If you know someone who works 60 hours per week, you assume that the average American works 60 hours a week.
If you hear that some people lack health insurance, you assume that the majority of Americans also lack health insurance.
If you read that some American employees do not get overtime pay, you assume that overtime is just not paid in the US.
You only need to read back a few pages in this thread to find these kinds of assumptions and more.
"The country" does not see itself as anything. Rather, 300 million people individually view their lives and their country in different ways. There are certainly some people who think the US is the best. There are more who acknowledge that the US has lots of problems. But it's a little unfair and biased--isn't it?--to say that the "US is the worst in everything." So Europe is the best in everything, ahem?
Bingo.
I was born in the US and live here now. I've also lived in Europe and in Asia and traveled throughout both regions quite a bit. I see all sorts of positives in all sorts of different cultures and I appreciate all sorts of aspects of other cultures, many of which differ significantly from the US.
The US is far from perfect. I know very few people who are dumb enough to think it is - or that any place is. It's not a Utopia but it's got many fine qualities - some would say that it's finer qualities outshine it's lesser ones.
And I have nothing but disdain for anyone who insists on throwing ridiculous stereotypes around - for any country. The person who is consistently blathering on about nothing but negatives about the US is just as ignorant, in my opinion, as some flag-waving yeehaw Bubba sporting a Confederate flag tattoo. Thankfully, I don't run into either extreme too often.
And the pessimism seems to lie in assuming that what may be true for one person, in one city, in the US, is true for everyone across the country. And all of these assumptions are negative, because you want to believe that the US is a terrible, depraved, backwards place.
If you know someone who works 60 hours per week, you assume that the average American works 60 hours a week.
If you hear that some people lack health insurance, you assume that the majority of Americans also lack health insurance.
If you read that some American employees do not get overtime pay, you assume that overtime is just not paid in the US.
You only need to read back a few pages in this thread to find these kinds of assumptions and more.
It can be argued to what degree these assumption are true indeed and I don't know the answer to that either. But is has become clear from different topics and sources/statistics that were linked to that the US is actually doing worse here than all other western countries. That is also the origin of all the stereotypes, which exactly for that reason, are really not that far off. If you could show me some credible source that some other western country is doing worse, I'll be the first to admit my wrong.
It can be argued to what degree these assumption are true indeed and I don't know the answer to that either. But is has become clear from different topics and sources/statistics that were linked to that the US is actually doing worse here than all other western countries. That is also the origin of all the stereotypes, which exactly for that reason, are really not that far off. If you could show me some credible source that some other western country is doing worse, I'll be the first to admit my wrong.
When people work two jobs in Europe, do they get paid overtime? Is it against the law for people in Europe to hold down two jobs and work more than a set number of hours per week combined?
I really don't know the answer to this and I guess I could google it but I thought I'd ask you first.
No, of course not. It's a free continent after all! But having two or more jobs is very rare at least in my country.
He can take off as much time as he wants to at any time of the year. And that's the truth. Not many people in either Europe or the US could say that and I realize that we're lucky.
Hey, you asked.
Sounds good!
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