The annual “summer break” is in full swing in Europe.

Most Americans have no clue what this entails.

The ‘Summer break’ is the extended annual holiday period during July and August when schools close, and much of the workforce takes an extended vacation.

Every single worker in the European Union is guaranteed four weeks of paid vacation. No matter how long they’ve been at a company. No matter how low paying the job is. The law is the same for the CEO of Shell as it is for a burger flipper at McDonald’s.

In the EU, paid vacation is a basic human right.

Every one of the richest countries in the world guarantees paid vacation.

Except one: the USA!

Because you know, we’re the greatest nation on Earth.

So, this summer, while Americans are busy being smug about their greatness, the civilized world is on holiday.

Summer break in Europe ranges from 6 weeks in countries like Denmark and the UK to up to 13 to 14 weeks[!] in southern countries like Italy and Malta. Generally, the break runs from late June or early July through late August or early September.

Many working adults across Europe – particularly in countries like France, Italy, and Sweden – take 3 to 4 weeks of uninterrupted PAID leave, frequently during July or August. Because they can.

Entire offices, local family-run businesses and factories often shut down completely for two or three weeks in peak summer, causing city life to slow down significantly.

In America, we have a system with no legal guarantees for paid leave.

The USA is the only “advanced” economy with no national law guaranteeing paid vacation or holidays. In America, time off is left entirely up to individual employers, who typically offer only 10 to 15 days a year.

Here, workers worry that taking extended time off will hurt their chances for promotion or lead to job loss. Most people don’t even use all of the small amount of leave they are given.

Broken labor unions are a primary cause for this travesty, along with the fact that there few, if any, worker protections. This is why many American workers are hesitant to demand long breaks.

Another reason people can’t take long vacations in the USA is because in many cases, essential needs like healthcare are often tied directly to an individual’s ongoing employment, making long periods away from the job riskier.

If our country wasn’t filled with so many fucking retards, this would be an outrage.

Has there ever in history been a government so contemptuous of its own people? In Imperial Rome at least they got ‘bread and circuses.’

Here we just get the circus.