In many parts of Europe, it’s common for workers to take off weeks at a time, especially during the summer. Envious Americans say it’s time for the U.S. to follow suit.

Some 66% of U.S. workers say companies should adopt extended vacation policies, like a month off in August, in their workplaces, according to a Morning Consult survey of 1,047 U.S. adults.

  • nyar@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “In 2020, there were a total 5,775,258 U.S. firms in all sectors. They employed about 129,363,644 workers and had total annual payroll of $7.3 trillion.”

    https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/01/who-owns-americas-businesses.html

    US population per that census: 331,449,281.

    For simplification, let’s assume one business owner per business. Then it’s only 1.74243% of Americans that own a business. Even with inclusion of additional owners for businesses, you aren’t going to get anywhere near that 34%, as that would be 112,692,756 people.

    In short, realistically the 34% are not business owners, and instead are the propagandized proletariat who fight against their own best interest in favor of capital (conservatives and fascists).

    • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      This is what you are looking for:

      https://www.statista.com/statistics/254085/business-establishments-in-the-us-by-employment-size/

      Breakdown of the size/ # employees per business.

      There are 4.6 million businesses with 1-4 employees. 8,600 businesses with 1,000+ employees.

      Per Google:

      “Small businesses employ 61.7 million people in the United States, which is 46.4% of all US employees. This means that almost half of all Americans work at a small business. Small businesses are defined as independent businesses with fewer than 500 employees. They make up 99.9% of all US businesses.”

    • Dave@lemmy.nz
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      1 year ago

      It’s likely that the average business has a lot more than one owner per business. Most would have multiple shareholders, whether that’s husband and wife businesses, or a small firm of several partners. Plus you also need to add in shareholders, etc. Though it’s also true that one person can own multiple, and presumably the survey didn’t let the same person answer twice, so maybe the 1:1 assumption is ok.

      But even so, isn’t that figure super low? Here in New Zealand, we have about 550,000 small businesses (less than 20 employees, including self-employed), which if there were one owner per business would make this 10% of businesses.

      I’d also add that people who work in small businesses are also more likely to understand what a fine line there is between them having a job and the business going bust. This is especially true for places like hospitality, where margins are thin and businesses go bankrupt at a high rate. These employees may also think it’s a bad idea, because they know their business can’t afford it even if they are not the owners.

      instead are the propagandized proletariat who fight against their own best interest

      If you went out on the street and started talking to the average person, I think you’d find that it was difficult to find a person who wasn’t voting against their own interests (other than those that do not vote at all).