Holiday entitlement in America

It is a fact that America has not only one of the lowest holiday entitlements but is actually the lowest. Technically, there is no entitlement to paid holiday in America, yet they still have many public holidays. This I believe really promotes De Crevecoeur's idea of hard work and self motivation that Americans must have.

The only time Americans can have any form of holiday is when they have worked between 5 and ten years depending on different firms conditions. This particular rule of only having holiday when working a certain amount of years really utilises the determination of Americans and their morale of hard work. It seems as if they have to earn their rest, which really relates to De Crevecoeur's idea of idleness. "Idleness is the most heinous sin that can be committed in Nantucket:"  This particular quotation is interesting as it portrays idleness as a sin and gives it a religious aspect as if it is forbidden or not spoken of in American culture. This really portrays the strength of this view that De Crevecoeur portrays.

However, despite this promotion and mirroring of De Creveceour's idea of hard work and self motivation, it implies that not allowing holidays prevents idleness, which is not what De Creveceour was trying to say. I think the idea of self motivation of the American Farmer was so that they were able to work for themselves in order to feel the benefits and satisfaction of self motivation, but when will these rewards be received in todays society?

In some ways, De Crevecoeur's idea still lives on in todays society as there seem to be a high enforcement of good work ethic and motivation. However, the work ethic is debatable as it seems that Americans can appear to be over worked as they don't receive the benefits of this hard work/ labour, therefore can be seen as defeating the object of self motivation.

De Creveceour, Letters From An American Farmer


http://uk.mercer.com/press-releases/holiday-entitlements-around-the-world

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/expat/sebastiandoggart/10144418/why-cant-americans-take-holidays/