Posted by
RepublicanEvangelist on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 11:48:51 PM
You can. It's called unemployment or France for short. France has had chronic unemployment for decades. We are kvetching as we approach 9 percent. The French have had double digit unemployment for as long as anyone can remember. Part of the reason is the restrictions, penalties if you will, that is placed on businesses for hiring anyone. Mandatory vacation is one of those burdens placed on business in Europe. In America, most employees enjoy 2 weeks off as part of their benefits package with their employers. Some people get more based on number of years of employment. The companies that don't provide vacation time generally don't because they can't afford to. I run a small business. I am the only full time employee. The reason? I can't afford to hire anyone else. This also means that I usually don't get two weeks off a year. My customers would leave me rapidly if they got a message,"sorry the office is closed while I vacation in Tahiti," frequently. Mandating two weeks means adding an additional cost of at least 5% to every employee. The cost could be more as temp workers may have to be brought in to fill positions. There is a bill being sponsored in Congress requiring mandatory vacation time
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-bk-paid-vacation-grayson-052209,0,1637421.story . This will only result in the reduction of incomes for current employees and the high likelihood of companies not filling positions lost to attrition. What good will it for employees to have vacation time with no money to spend? I think vacation is valuable but so is work. Work is a gift from God and should be treated as such. I have a good friend of mine who is leaving California for Arizona to go to school but probably isn't coming back. He told me today that California charges him $800 a year to maintain his Corporate status. Arizona charges $50. California has 11 % unemployment
http://www.reliableplant.com/article.aspx?articleid=17852&pagetitle=Chart%3A+States+with+highest+unemployment+rates . Arizona has 7.7%
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2009/05/21/20090521biz-jobs0521online.html . Arizona is friendly to business. California is not. If you make it difficult for employers to employ people, they won't. You can't create prosperity by government mandate but you can make everyone miserable.