My right to have my picture taken with a giant mouse

The Bill of Rights for Americans is getting longer and longer. Now we have freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom from illegal search and seizure and, let’s not forget, freedom of two weeks paid vacation. That’s right; Florida congressman Alan Grayson is proposing a paid vacation act. He believes that the world would be a better place if the government mandated that every employee receives paid vacation. He argues that studies have shown that vacation increases productivity and his legislation would stimulate the economy. Mr. Grayson came up with his brilliant idea while standing in line at Disneyland.

Listen, if paying for vacation is a smart business move (and I’m not arguing it’s not) then the businesses have the freedom to do it. If an employee wants a job where he gets his paid vacation, then he will make it a priority in his job search. But it is not the federal government’s job to mandate such measures. Indeed, the federal government does not have the RIGHT to mandate such measures. These sort of legislations simply display an inherent misunderstanding about how economics works.

But let me tell you WHY I am concerned about this. It’s not because I hate vacations. It is partially because I hate the use of the logic, “the United States is the last in the industrialized world in requiring vacation time for its workers.” France requires 30 days a year in paid vacation time and I am sure we all desire to mimic their unemployment rate. The thing that really bothers me is this: Bigger Government. Right now we have a good system. An employee is free to choose his job based on the benefits the job offers. If someone else offers a more comprehensive benefit package, that employee is free to choose another job.

What we do not need is another bureaucracy. Instead of an intelligent, independent person, free to peruse the marketplace for a job that provides the best return on his skills, we have a poor victim of society complaining to an enormous government body that his “basic human rights” are not being met by his evil employer.

People don’t understand the symbiotic relationship of worker and business. They want to paint it as a boxing match, where there has to be someone to handicap the stronger competitor. If you want to make yourself more valuable so that you have more bargaining power in choosing a job, get more skills. THAT will help the economy. Crippling the freedom of industry and strengthening the power of someone without requiring them to be more useful or productive, will just make things worse. If you want more…earn it. Giving it away for nothing hurts our economy and is primarily the reason we’re in the mess we’re in. A sense of entitlement creates less production, not more.