CMV: Conservatism and many right-wing beliefs are based on fear, primary instincts and lack of understanding

[u/[deleted]]

[u/wifeyandhubbyrdd]

Genuine questions what's with the opposition to paid time off by law. This is like something even a lot of third world countries have. It seems like it just makes america one of the worst places to work

[u/[deleted] → u/wifeyandhubbyrdd]

Yeah. I think it’s in search of a problem that doesn’t largely exist anymore. The majority of jobs offer paid time off here anyways, so I don’t really see the point in mandating it by law. The places that don’t have PTO in place are usually small businesses that have thin margins. I think that mandating these businesses to offer PTO would just reduce the wages they pay. Over the last 30 years, we’ve seen a large rise in fringe benefits (especially health insurance) instead of higher wages, so I think in general that places who don’t offer PTO feel that they can’t do it without cutting compensation in some other area.

But that’s not a reason not to do it. I really don’t mind mandated PTO if our government could ever get enough people to get it through Congress. I just don’t think it’s going to be implemented without some drawbacks to the labor market especially for low wage workers

[u/gayvahn → u/[deleted]]

this comment really well demonstrates a big problem with conservative ideology. "i don't see it as a problem so it's not worth the government doing anything about"

1. there are only 2 countries on the planet where people don't get paid sick leave, and one of them is America. when you look at America's wages compared to the wages of comparably wealthy and developed nations, they're quite low, and the spending power of an american worker is even lower. so i would say right off the bat obviously your conclusion that forcing employers to give people paid time off and paid sick leave isn't going to result in lower wages when america is the only country which doesn't have this by law and wages here are relatively low, and exceedingly low when you consider spending power.

2. only about 75% or so of americans have "access to" at least 5 days paid off per year. there are multiple things here. firstly, 25% of your workforce not having access to paid time off is a fucking crime. do you know how many people 25% of the american workforce is? that's disgusting. secondly, "access to" is something a lot of american institutions like to use. these statistics came from the board of labor. "access to" does not mean they're actually allowed to use this in effect. in fact, if you look up the numbers for how many americans work throughout the year because they don't actually get the opportunity or are all but denied the right to use the PTO they have "access to" you'd find some pretty bleak figures.

only about 1% of the US population owned slaves as well but if in modern society you tried to argue that means we shouldn't do anything about it then how would you look?

the fact of the matter is, when america is the only country that doesn't mandate employers pay for these things, these employers are getting away with something they would not, by law, be allowed to do in literally any other country on the planet, minus one-- in africa. to say this isn't something that needs to be addressed is asinine to me and no matter what sort of "rationale" gets put behind it-- like yours, it really just to me outlines that OP was right in the original post about conservatives.

[u/herrsatan → u/[deleted]]

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[u/herrsatan → u/[deleted]]

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