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| Would you like to be guaranteed more vacation time and materninty/paternity leave similar to that of the Scandinavian countries? |
| Yesu |
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60% |
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| No |
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26% |
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| Don't know |
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13% |
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| Total Votes : 23 |
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Buter&Lola Joined: 30 Jan 2008 Total posts: 4963 |
 Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 9:27 pm
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| I know Non. I don't think most people in the US would tolerate paying 40% in taxes regardless of what they were offered in exchange. |
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Koronin
Location: Gallifrey Gender: Female |
Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 10:38 pm
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40% in taxes. No thank you. I would fight tooth and nail to keep from paying that kind of taxes. Paying that much in taxes you'd never be able to afford to get to and from work let alone be able to afford anything else.
Let's see I work part-time as a merchandiser. I can take time off whenever I want as long as I give at minimum two week notice to my boss. I just don't get paid for it. My husband gets 40 hours sick time per year per year, two weeks vacation (all new hires get this), and floating holidays which vary depending on when the holiday falls. They also work 4 day work weeks (11 hr shifts) and have 3 day weekends every weekend. After there years they get one additional weeks vacation and if I remember right you can get as many as 6 weeks vacation, plus 40 hrs sick time, plus the floating holidays. Due do the 11 hr shifts (1 hour unpaid lunch) they do all vacation time, sick time, ect as hours and not days. Also sites do get bonuses based on performance and get bonuses based on yearly earnings of the company. (This is a German Company, not a US company). Oh and if you do not use up all your vacation time you get to carry it over to the next year. You can carry upto 40 hrs over to the following year. You can only carry over vacation time though. You must use your sick time and floating holidays. Also they allow them to use sick days as vacation time and they can schedule sick days off as vacation days. The company looks at all three as interchangeable other than what is carried over.
My dad is retired from GM. I know for a fact that if the company had a successful year they would give a year end Christmas bonus to ALL employees. When my dad retired at 30 years he was getting 6 weeks vacation. These 6 weeks do NOT include the week off a Christmas, the long weekend at both Easter and Thanksgiving, and several other holidays. Now the 6 weeks did include the one week off at the 4th of July in which they closed the plant for a week for maintainance. I also think they got one week sick time as well.
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PrincessLucy
Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Total posts: 4210 Location: Connecticut Age: 52 Gender: Female |
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:00 am
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I work in a grocery store full-time, and I am in the union.
After 12 years, I started getting 4 weeks vacation. When I hit 20 years, I will get a fifth week. You have to use all your vacations, but usually I work during my vacation week (at least 1 or 2 days of it) for extra money.
I get 6 paid holidays, such as Christmas, New years, etc.
I get 6 personal days. Use 'em or lose 'em.
I get 9 sick days. If I don't use them, I get paid for them.
We have a short-term disability clause, and the union pays us while we are out. It is up to 6 months, I believe, but can be extended under certain circumstances.
I was out 10 1/2 weeks when I tore my Achilles Tendon walking my dog. I got paid $350 per week, and, although I make more than that, it was enough to survive on.
Part-timers don't get the same sick and personal days as me, and their disability pay is smaller.
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| sharbear1105 Joined: 13 Aug 2005 Total posts: 1394 Age: 45 Gender: Female |
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:03 am
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I would love to see paid maternity leave at all companies but I doubt it would ever happen. I was lucky enough (and the last one) at my company to get to use whatever vacation/sick time for my 6 week maternity leave and the company paid the difference (probably 3 weeks). They since stopped doing that.
As for a year off I don't see how companies would survive. I know at mine getting a temp and training them doesn't always work out. Even hiring new people is difficult to find someone who can actually do the job.
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| angeltjd77 |
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 10:19 am
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[quote="soccerdog"] | Quote: |
I do realize that most people won't voluntarily invest in their retirement. Part of me believes that if they don't, it's their problem to figure out what to do when they are too old to work. But, I realize we can't have a large percentage of our population destitute when they retire just because they were too stupid or undisciplined to save for their retirement. So, I can accept that most people have to be forced to save. |
 Wow! What an ignorant statement. |
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| soccerdog |
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:19 am
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| Quote: | | Wow! What an ignorant statement. |
You know, if you're going to accuse someone of being ignorant, at least have the common sense to explain why you believe that. Otherwise, you just look like one of those people who were going to vote for Barack Obama because they wanted Sarah Palin as VP.  |
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| MidgensMom |
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:41 am
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I don't know if the referenced statement was ignorant or naive, but it IMO, it's one or the other. Many people don't have retirement savings because they are struggling just to live on what they make. I was one of these people for a few years. Once the bills were paid and my animals and myself fed, there was nothing left TO invest or put into an IRA. In fact, I have stat retirement now, but if I didn't, I STILL wouldn't have anything extra to put aside.
A lot of people would love to have the luxury of making enough money to put some away each month. It's not like they are saying, "Gee, I could save for the future, but I'd rather leech of the government instead." Sure, there might be a FEW of those, but most of them simply don't have the money to save. Must be nice to be rich and never have to worry, but accusing others of being lazy or irresponsible because they are not rich and live hand to mouth and struggle to do so is getting a little old. You're lucky, Soccerdog, to never have to worry or live among the Great Unwashed, as you seem to think that those who don't have much are...I sincerely hope you never have to be poor and be looked down upon just for struggling to do the best you can-it really stinks! |
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| mom2cocoa Joined: 10 Aug 2006 Total posts: 2619 |
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:45 am
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| Quote: | | Must be nice to be rich and never have to worry, but accusing others of being lazy or irresponsible because they are not rich and live hand to mouth and struggle to do so is getting a little old. |
My thoughts exactly.....
And everytime I do have some money to put away, it doesn't stay there long. My hot water tank died yesterday. That's another $800 when all is said and done out of my savings. Because I refuse to use credit cards. I work for the public school system and belong to a union, so I do have a pension through there. But everytime I save anything outside of my pension, things like this happen.
Oh, I would also be able to save lots (and I mean lots and lots) more if I had never had children too. But I do have children....
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| soccerdog |
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:51 am
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| Quote: | | I don't know if the referenced statement was ignorant or naive, but it IMO, it's one or the other. |
It was neither. If you get a paycheck, the federal government takes 6%-7% of your income before you ever see it. If the government did not take 6%-7% out of your check, why could you not invest 6%-7% of your check in a retirement account like an IRA? You could. But most people wouldn't. That's why the government forces people to save for their retirement by deducting SS taxes from their checks. If you were disciplined enough to VOLUNTARILY invest the SAME 6% to 7% out of EVERY SINGLE paycheck, for your entire working life, you would be FAR better off when you retire than the meager check you will get (if you even get that) from the SS system.
So, how is that ignorant or naive? |
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| mom2cocoa Joined: 10 Aug 2006 Total posts: 2619 |
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:55 am
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Probably because you assume that most people are too lazy to save on their own. Money is a daily worry for me, and not because I'm not a saver. I'm very, very frugal and put away money each and every month on my own, in addition to the money taken out of my check to go to my pension. We still, however, only have an "emergency" savings. Again, an emergency savings is necessary in my eyes because I refuse to use credit cards. Things are tough right now, whether you want to believe it or not.
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| angeltjd77 |
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:05 pm
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It must be nice to live in your bubble, soccerdog. In case you are not aware, over half of Americans will live in poverty at one time in their life or another. Women and minorities are more likely to live in poverty when they retire. Even those whoare able to save for retirement often are not able to save enough.
To suggest people are too stupid or undisciplined is very simplistic and naive. |
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| soccerdog |
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:10 pm
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| Quote: | | And everytime I do have some money to put away, it doesn't stay there long. My hot water tank died yesterday. That's another $800 when all is said and done out of my savings. |
I'm guessing you didn't get the money for your water heater out of Social Security, right? The money you have paid into SS throughout your life is untouchable until you retire. You find other ways to pay for things like hot water heaters. If you did not pay into SS, but instead invested the EXACT SAME amount of money out of EVERY paycheck into a RETIREMENT fund, not a short-term savings account, and if you treated that retirement fund as untouchable (just like SS) then there would be absolutely no difference in how you pay for day-to-day expenses like water heaters. The only difference would be you would have money when you retire.
But, as I acknowledged, most people won't do that because they are not disciplined enough to do it on their own. So, the federal government forces us to do it. In other words, the federal government forces you to do what is good for you.
Posted Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:12 pm:
| Quote: | | In case you are not aware, over half of Americans will live in poverty at one time in their life or another. Women and minorities are more likely to live in poverty when they retire. |
Your source for those statistics? |
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| mom2cocoa Joined: 10 Aug 2006 Total posts: 2619 |
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:16 pm
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| soccerdog wrote: | | Quote: | | And everytime I do have some money to put away, it doesn't stay there long. My hot water tank died yesterday. That's another $800 when all is said and done out of my savings. |
I'm guessing you didn't get the money for your water heater out of Social Security, right? The money you have paid into SS throughout your life is untouchable until you retire. You find other ways to pay for things like hot water heaters. If you did not pay into SS, but instead invested the EXACT SAME amount of money out of EVERY paycheck into a RETIREMENT fund, not a short-term savings account, and if you treated that retirement fund as untouchable (just like SS) then there would be absolutely no difference in how you pay for day-to-day expenses like water heaters. The only difference would be you would have money when you retire.
But, as I acknowledged, most people won't do that because they are not disciplined enough to do it on their own. So, the federal government forces us to do it. In other words, the federal government forces you to do what is good for you.
Posted Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:12 pm:
| Quote: | | In case you are not aware, over half of Americans will live in poverty at one time in their life or another. Women and minorities are more likely to live in poverty when they retire. |
Your source for those statistics? |
I don't pay into Social Security. I pay into a pension for public school employees. And since you don't know me, I will tell you that if the money was not taken out of my check and put into a pension I certainly would be putting it into a retirement account on my own. Just because I am not well off like you and your spouse are does not mean I am not disciplined. Which is what I'm trying to get across to you. Do you have any idea how much money children cost, and I mean children you are responsible for for life. Not foster children.
The money for the hot water tank came out of a short term savings account that I keep exactly for times like this. When an appliance dies, etc. I put money into that every month. After putting money into that, there is no more money left to put away anywhere else. I just thank God I have that money put aside for emergencies. The point is, I am very frugal and disciplined and still have to watch money carefully and still have to worry every week, month, year, etc. I don't worry about the now, I worry about the 5 or 10 or 30 years from now. And not because I'm not discplined!
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Angel 6/1998 - 1/3/2012
I love you and miss you, babygirl!! |
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| soccerdog |
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:25 pm
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| Quote: | | I don't pay into Social Security. I pay into a pension for public school employees. And since you don't know me, I will tell you that if the money was not taken out of my check and put into a pension I certainly would be putting it into a retirement account on my own. |
I'm not talking about you specifically. I am talking about people in general, OK. If you tell me that you believe that if the federal government stopped deducting SS taxes TODAY, that most people would voluntarily invest the same amount of money into a retirement account, and not touch that money until they retire, then we'll just have to agree to disagree. If the federal government stops taking 7% of our check before we ever see it, and asks us to invest that 7% in a retirement fund of our choice, do you think most people would do that? I do not. That is ALL I'm saying.
| Quote: | | Do you have any idea how much money children cost, and I mean children you are responsible for for life. |
Most people don't consider themselves responsible for their children for life. And again, we didn't have children when we were young because we could not afford them! That was a choice we made based on our financial circumstances at that time.
Last edited by Guest on Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:33 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| mom2cocoa Joined: 10 Aug 2006 Total posts: 2619 |
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:30 pm
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| soccerdog wrote: | | Quote: | | I don't pay into Social Security. I pay into a pension for public school employees. And since you don't know me, I will tell you that if the money was not taken out of my check and put into a pension I certainly would be putting it into a retirement account on my own. |
I'm not talking about you specifically. I am talking about people in general, OK. If you tell me that you believe that if the federal government stopped deducting SS taxes TODAY, that most people would voluntarily invest the same amount of money into a retirement account, and not touch that money until they retire, then we'll just have to agree to disagree. If the federal government stops taking 7% of our check before we ever see it, and asks us to invest that 7% in a retirement fund of our choice, do you think most people would do that? I do not. That is ALL I'm saying. |
I will admit some would not. Though I think more would than you seem to think. 10% of my pay (that's my contribution only, not my employers) goes into my pension. I'd actually like to up that to 15% though.
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Angel 6/1998 - 1/3/2012
I love you and miss you, babygirl!! |
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