Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Quality of Life

The researchers at McGill and Harvard Universities analyzed the working conditions in 190 of the world’s 192 United Nations countries. And here are some of the findings:
  • 163 nations around the world guarantee paid sick leave; the U.S. does not.
  • 164 nations guarantee paid annual leave; the U.S. does not.
  • 177 nations guarantee paid leave for new mothers; the U.S. does not.
  • 74 nations guarantee paid leave for new fathers; the U.S. does not.
  • 48 nations guarantee paid time off to care for children’s health; the U.S. does not.
  • 157 nations guarantee workers a day of rest each week; the U.S. does not. 
This list is definitely going on the wall of my office. Maybe I will even make a laminated poster out of it. My students are in desperate need of learning this information. Whenever I ask them which country offers its citizens the best quality of life, they always respond that it is the US and are very shocked to discover that it is absolutely not true. The students believe the propaganda that keeps telling them how great they have it in the US and are less motivated to change things. They need to find out about the most basic rights that so many other nations guarantee to their people that the US do not.

6 comments:

Joy-Mari Cloete said...

The students believe the propaganda that keeps telling them how great they have it in the US and are less motivated to change things.

So, so, so true. Did they say anything about abortion rights?

Joy-Mari Cloete said...

Oh,wait. The study is about work conditions.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure that, say, Cuba is among those "progressive" countries. Do you get my drift?

Clarissa said...

Cuba or no Cuba, there are 100+ countries on that list whether Cuba is there or not.

If you like living in a place that doesn't guarantee you even such basic rights, then good for you. Just as long as people stop screeching that the standard of living is so high in the US. It isn't high. It's actually shamefully low. And everybody needs to know about this.

Anonymous said...

You're Canadian. You want more welfare? Move.

Clarissa said...

Yeah? And then who is going to teach your kids?

I think you should move. Think about it, it might even broaden your extremely narrow horizons.