Actually, if the US offered 42 paid days off a year as in my hypothetical bill, it would rank first in the developed world alongside Monaco who also offers 42 paid days off. Also most countries in the developed world don’t mandate things like personal days, bereavement, or paid time off for mandatory civic duties. For the few countries that do, it’s very limited.

For example, a couple of countries in the Balkans offer 7 days of paid bereavement time per year, and that’s the highest in the world. Most countries offer only a couple of days or nothing at all. So offering 10 days for every loved that passes away in a single year would make this the most the most generous paid bereavement leave in the world.

Still though, we currently have nothing so anything would be nice at this point.

We really should. It’s up to us organize and push change. Our complacency is what brought us to this point. We have to be active and demand our rights.

I think this is stupid. We need the bill to be way more aggressive, ambitious, and inclusive.

Here’s what needs to be happen for this bill to bring meaningful change:

1. Increase the guaranteed paid leave time to at least 20 workdays. Having just 10 workdays off is a joke, we need to raise our standards to match the rest of the developed world.
2. Expand the coverage to include part time workers and contractors. I think it’s fine if part employees get slightly less guaranteed time (like 2/3 of what full timers get) and contractors get more nuanced rules, but they need to be included. If they’re not then that just opens a loophole for corporations to continue not giving people the vacation time they deserve
3. Include paid sick time in the bill, and explicitly separate it from vacation time. These are not the same thing and should draw from the same pool. Guarantee all employees get a least 5 workdays of sick leave that can be expanded up to 10 workdays if the employee provides a doctor’s note.
4. Add paid sick leave that is NOT paid sick time. The Federal government needs to follow the Massachusetts model where workers are eligible to take up to 20 weeks of paid medical leave for their own serious health condition, up to 12 weeks of paid family leave to care for a relative, or a combined maximum of 26 weeks per benefit year.
5. Just like MA, this money doesn’t come from the employers but from the government. That means the federal government needs to create a department in every state that processes these claims and pays people properly when they need to take time off to ensure that the benefits are guaranteed.
6. Require companies to give at least 10 workdays of paid bereavement leave. Employees should be eligible to get this benefit any time a spouse or close relative passes away (parents, children, and siblings).
7. Make all 11 federal holidays (technically 12 with Inauguration Day, but that happens once every 4 years) paid by default, and add election day as the 12th annual paid federal holiday.
8. Include a stipulation that mandates companies to provide a paid day off for any holiday that falls on a weekend either the Friday before or Monday after. Employers also need to provide essential workers that need to work on holidays, their paid day off within one week before or after the holiday.
9. Provide guaranteed paid maternity leave for up to 24 weeks all mothers for every child, where they are eligible to start their leave at 4 weeks prenatal. Just like with the sick leave, the federal government will guarantee 100% of their pay for all 24 weeks.
10. Provide guaranteed paid paternity leave for up to 16 weeks. Fathers also need to bond and take care of their newborns as well as the mother of their children. The federal government will guarantee the first 12 weeks with 100% pay, and the last 4 with 67% pay.
11. Have the federal government guarantee paid time at full rates for any mandatory time off taken for civic duties like jury duty.
12. Mandate employers provide employees with at least 5 paid workdays that count as personal days that can be taken for any personal reason such emergencies, ceremonies, errands, or extra sick time or vacation time.
13. The federal government needs to explicitly ban employers from firing or retaliating against employees for taking any of the time off provided and guaranteed by the bill, maintain their health insurance while they’re gone, and be legally required to give employees their jobs back or provide them with an equivalent position that has the pay and benefits once they’re back.

Now THIS is a serious bill. It guarantees a generous 42 workdays (20 vacation + 5 sick time + 5 personal days + 12 holidays) worth of paid time off annually which finally puts this country not just on on par with the rest of the developed world, but ahead. If the US is to serve as the leader of the free world, this is how it has to be done. This on top of the mandatory employment protections and extra paid time off for specific scenarios, makes this a truly worker friendly country. This kind of bill would increase happiness, improve health, and reduce stress for hundreds of millions of people.

Now, I’m not naive, I know Republicans and corporate Democrats will try to water this down. However, even if we only end up getting 2/3 or even 1/2 of the benefits and guarantees on this bill then that’s still a huge win. You have to start negotiations from a high a place so you’ll end up with something that’s at least acceptable. What Bernie proposed is starting from a low place to appease people who are genuinely greedy and apathetic to the point of being evil. You can’t do that. You have to hit them hard and rally the people on your side. People will whine about me letting perfect be the enemy of good, but I’m not. I’m against letting mediocrity stop us from achieving anything meaningful. If the Democrats did less performative shit and focus on real change like my hypothetical expanded bill, they would sweep the GOP into oblivion.

People today really do lack basic critical thinking to the point where it’s not just concerning, but could outright explain the decline of our society. I think it should be common sense to consume media while being mindful of its era and audience as well as being able separate the art from the artists. I think it’s ridiculous that there are people who are attacking actors for playing an outdated joke on a show 30 years ago. Like how fragile and miserable do you have to be to get that riled up while trying to watch entertainment to relax.

I thought it was okay. A lot of the humor relies on awkward social situations being funny which is a hit or miss.

To me the issue with Seinfeld is Seinfeld himself. He’s just a very bad actor and he sticks out like a sore thumb with the other characters. Watching his deadpan face in every episode kills the mood for me.

I think sitcom hate has gone overboard. It became trendy and cool on sitcoms for some reason. I personally am okay with sitcoms if the characters are well written and the writers can write gags that naturally fit with their personalities.

Idk why you’re being downvoted, you’re right. The shows first few seasons were great because the humor felt original and the chemistry between the characters felt organic.

I felt like all of the characters declined. Chandler’s sarcasm became more and more forced. Ross getting divorced again and again got repetitive, I also didn’t like how they handled him having a kid. Joey’s character was lobotomized and he went from being a funny womanizer to being a child in an adult’s body. The girls stayed more consistent, but I felt like Phoebe’s shtick kind of wore off and became annoying. I also hate the ending.

I think the first half of friends is one of the best sitcom products that American TV has produced, but the second half is just mediocre.

I mean if you understand that they’re satire, then they can be funny.

That being said American dad past season 9 and Family Guy past season 7 have severely declined in quality to the point where they’re not funny to me anymore.

That’s just the nature of Lemmy. It was built by tankies for tankies, and so this reflects on the user base. The politics here is a bubble and it’s inescapable, unfortunately that’s just a part of the package. You just have to deal with unhinged, misinformed, and extreme takes all the time. There are tools and strategies that can help you reduce the amount, but you can’t get rid of it. Lemmy doesn’t have the user base of Reddit where you can find big and active communities for everything. Outside of politics, subpar memes, and some niche tech stuff, there really isn’t much else. However, I still think it’s worth it for the privacy alone.

What nonsense

I mean that would be the right move, but would they actually do it? I doubt it

This is actually pretty normal. The stock usually drops after the initial launch hype dies down, and then it begins to slowly rise again over time.

This has nothing to do with Israel, the US, or Russia. This a dipshit dictator who’s shamelessly grabbing power

You want that land over there? Then you just have to kill/displace anyone currently living there, then fill it with your own citizens, then ask them. Easy land grab. Also a genocide.

That’s virtually all of human history.

And yet it means nothing. When you look at glonal perception data of the US, it was favorable under Clinton, Obama, and Biden and unfavorable under Bush and Trump both times. Outside of the obvious partisan implications, the data shows that perception changes a lot and very quickly. It really doesn’t mean much outside of the present atmosphere.

This has been happening every 4 years for the past 30 years. It will change once again once Trump is replaced by a Dem.

This also goes for Russia, Israel, China, or whatever other country. People put too much stock on perception trends, when in reality it means very little. Things like this change at the drop of a hat.

The fact that people are arguing over this at all is crazy lmao

Lol wut?

The intent of the laws is what’s up to interpretation. A lot genocides don’t have an explicit policy like the Holocaust or the Armenian genocide. A lot tend have policies where the real intentions are hidden under some sham cover. That’s why historians and other academic researchers examine policies by how they’re implemented and enforced rather than how politicians or the state market them as.