Truth? Perception? Misconception?
I always thought Americans were spoiled. Also, I thought that the rest of the world saw Americans as spoiled. It is a truth universally acknowledged, right Jane Austen?
Today, I carefully listened as an intelligent friend said, "Europeans are quite spoiled, aren't they?" My eyebrows raised as I thought....are they? "Well, yes. Americans work hard to make their lives better. Europeans are socialist. They all have tons of vacation. Work 35 hour weeks. Short weeks and lonnggg weekends by Friday at 1.00 they start their weekend." Then she looked at me, like of course they are spoiled.
We all have different perspectives, pasts, experiences and values. Take a moment to listen, empathize and respect what someone may say before you jump to conclusions,before you scowl, and before you judge. Because you may learn an important lesson, I did.
It's the reason we moved. It's refreshing. Oh yes...now I understand. If one values time, free time, family time, then yes Europeans just may be deliciously spoiled. Americans may have large houses and abundance of things, but that isn't the only definition of spoiled. Values defines affluence. Like Jack Reacher once said, affluence is having everything you need.
What do you need, honey bee?
In my experience, Europeans (at least Germans) might have all that time off, but they WORK when they are at work. In America, for every hour of work there's 15 minutes of slacking off.
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I haven't worked yet in Germany, FogDog, so your experience exceeds mine. When I do start working here, I bet my blogs become more interesting. ;)
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