The teens claimed CBP targeted them because they hadn’t booked hotels for their entire stay in Hawaii.
“They found it suspicious that we hadn’t fully booked our accommodations for the entire five weeks in Hawaii,” Pohl said. “We wanted to travel spontaneously. Just like we had done in Thailand and New Zealand.”
The most shocking thing about this is the five weeks. Like as Americans we have no clue how the rest of the world lives. The entire country of France stops working for 6 weeks in the summer. And we fight to get 2 weeks if we’re lucky.
It’s not the entire country that stops working but there’s indeed a significant reduction. If you don’t have children you’d have to be crazy to take time off work during the school holidays in summer (and also like the heat if you’re going somewhere in France because nowhere has mild temperatures anymore).
The legal minimum for full time jobs is 5 weeks but most people have more since they have jobs where you get extra rest time since you work more than 35h/week. Some affluent French people go skiing 2-3 times a year for a week or two each time and then also take two weeks off in summer, all paid.
I used to have 56 paid days off (that’s 11 weeks because Saturday and Sunday didn’t count) each year because I worked a lot more than the legally mandated hours and I had advantageous time credit for showing up early and leaving late and 4 days extra because I never took time off during school holidays (incentive to keep the shifts fully staffed). The pay was shit but at least I could go on trips all the time. I did end up getting a lot of those days paid instead because I didn’t have enough money to travel all the time and I couldn’t be bothered to stay home.
With this much time off our productivity was still very good, everything was timed and we always went above 100% of targets and long-term projects always done early.
Blue collar work in the USA looks like a scam in comparison: working the same job I would have had less purchasing power (sure the numbers entering your bank account are higher, but the health insurance alone cancels it out), more working hours and a lot less paid leave.
I’m a middle aged American and have never had a paid vacation.
I feel solidarity for you. My dad was a self employed mechanic, and the only vacation he ever took was when he broke his leg.
Pretty easy to take off 5 weeks when you are unemployed.
The French get 25 days off per year, which is on the higher side in Europe, but not quite 6 weeks.
25 days off per year MINIMUM required by law. At least that’s how it works in Sweden. Very common to have extra vacation days as a benefit. Then add the “red days” like first of may (international workers day, also outdoor fucking day according to some). There are 13 of them this year so minimum 38 days off. Americans were just too stupid to fight for it.
Does the state supply someone to fuck whilst outside?
No, you’d have to go to the netherlands for that.
I’m not trying to be mean, but the difference between 10 days and 25 days is the difference between night and day.
You successfully failed to be mean.
Don’t understand why you’re being downvoted. Because you’re exactly right. They just finished school and very likely don’t have a job. Very likely they are going to want to study later on and are spendig their time between the final school exams in spring and the start of the winter semester at university travelling, as man young Germans do.
Vacation time in Europe is a lot better than the US, but this has nothing to do with it. Depending on your contract you could get 30 days off in Germany, and since you don’t have to count the weekends or state holidays, if you work a regular Mo-Fr work week, you can arrange for a 6 week trip, but they had already spent 5 weeks in Thailand and NZ, were planning 5 weeks in Hawaii and then keep going other places. The way they are travelling is out of reach for most employees in Germany and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for many.
Heavily depends on whether you’re backpacking and staying at hostels or expecting all the usual vacation bells and whistles. But yes unless you become a digital nomad it’s not sustainable into adulthood, this is probably a gap year kind of thing. Saving up a couple of thousand working while in secondary education while still living with parents can get you quite a ways.
Also, there’s still tradespeople going on journey, with actual work visas. Tough luck doing such a thing abroad without a guild with the right contacts into state structures, staying within the EU is significantly easier.
Does the 25 days include national holidays like Xmas, etc? Perhaps it’s more than 25 once the national holidays are factored in?
Nope, those are all added on top.
Why so many downvotes for this guy? I don’t understand. As a student I could easily do some courses next year and take time to travel. Even better when you’ve just finished studying and go travel before starting a job. It’s not that weird, right?
I think maybe the phrasing? Calling them unemployed might have bad implications, even though it is accurate for recent graduates. I’m not sure.
Really I just find it interesting. Lemmy works in mysterious ways sometimes :D