Wait A Second….They Get How Much Vacation in Finland?

I love being an American! That's no lie at all. Land of the Free. Home of the Brave. Free economy and if you work hard, you can achieve anything. But wait a second....They get how much vacation in Finland? I guess when it comes to benefits, we suck an icy pole here in the good ole U.S. of A.

In my humble opinion, and this is probably one of many reasons I don't own or run a company, it's supremely important to treat your employees, the producers of your goods, as the number one asset in your business. Without these individuals, no product is made to sell. No products equals no clients which equals no business. That equals you sitting next to me in a row of cubicles. Treat your employees as your #1 asset and they will make you more successful than you can imagine. Okay, give or take a sour apple here and there. That's just my opinion. And as wasteful as that paragraph was, it does lead me to the next paragraph, which is how people write.

By the numbers, and by the research, we here in America are getting the shaft compared to other industrialized countries. Check this out, every industrialized country in the WORLD have laws requiring paid vacation days, except the United States. This is just CRAP!

Here's a list of countries and their paid vacation days required by law, sorted by alphabetical order:

• Australia - 20
• Austria - 22
• Belgium - 20
• Canada - 10
• Denmark - 25
• Finland - 25
• France - 30
• Germany - 24
• Greece - 20
• Ireland - 20
• Italy - 20
• Italy - 20
• Japan - 10
• Netherlands - 20
• New Zealand - 20
• Norway - 25
• Portugal - 22
• Spain - 22
• Sweden - 25
• UK - 20
• US - 0

ZERO!!!! That's how much our lovely lawmakers care. I'm sure when they take their 20th vacation of the year, they are laughing all the way to Barbados. I think it's time for a change.

Now, check out a list of the average number of paid vacation days given in a year to employees in each country (from least to greatest):

• United States of America - 13 days
• Belgium - 20 days
• Japan - 25 days
• Korea - 25 days
• Canada - 26 days
• United Kingdom - 28 days
• Australia - 28 days
• Brazil - 34 days
• Austria - 35 days (42 for elderly)
• Germany - 35 days
• France - 37 days
• Italy - 42 days

(Source: vpcalendar.net)

13 measly days. That's all our employers, CEO's, lawmakers and wives are giving to us. Not even a FULL 2 WEEKS! All the while, the 'decision' makers are making worthless decisions that ruin the rest of us and give them more days off and millions of dollars just to get fired.

Vacations and relaxing are proven to help create a higher volume of production. That's why other countries have laws. Of course, it's also so companies don't take advantage of us lowly workers. So, it just makes sense for us to get more time to reset our brains, relax and enjoy life.

What can we do? Well, that's the easy part. Just talk to your lawmakers. If we make a big enough stink, maybe we can make Iowa the first state in the Union to require vacation days by law. The hard part is getting these puppets to listen.

All I'm saying is we are suppose to be the most AWESOME country in the world. And, we are, except we don't treat ourselves very well. Let's make America AWESOME again. Start demanding our legislators to make this a priority. Then we can all have a kegger at the State House. I'll buy.

Find your legislator by clicking HERE.