All Americans Do Is Work

651 Words3 Pages
All Americans Do Is Work Everyone wants to live the American Dream. According to Dictionary.com the American Dream is, “a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S.” Everyone seeks to achieve a life of happiness and material comfort but it seems Americans are taking the hard road there. Most Americans work longer, get less vacation, and don’t really get to enjoy their lunch. With longer workweeks and slivers of vacation most Americans are not living the American Dream, but dreaming about the American Dream. No one wants to live in a country where he or she would have to work more than needed. “Here's a startling fact: Based on labor market statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Americans aged 15-64, on a per-person basis, work 50% more than the French. Comparisons between Americans and Germans or Italians are similar” (Edward C. Prescott Wall Street Journal). We don’t want to work away our youth. We want to enjoy being young. G.E Miller of 20 something finance states, “At least 134 countries have laws setting the maximum length of the work week; the U.S. does not”. It seems that’s business in the United States are trying to milk their workers for every last penny. It doesn’t seem too beneficial to work and live in the United States at this point. Not only do Americans work more hours but also they get the least amount of vacation. “They put us Americans at 1,841 “average” hours a year and the Germans at 1,473 hours in 2000 – and then put us at 1,804 hours a year and the Germans at 1,436 hours in 2006” (New York Times). That means that Americans work a total of 368 more hours than Germans in 2000, and exactly the same in 2006. There has been a decrease in hours worked in America, but we are still working more than Germans. 368 hours turns into fifteen and one third days.
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