Recently there have been discussions at work about various benefit packages. It all boils down to the very complicated equation: which is better: X weeks holiday, Y salary, Z health benefits etc vs. X’, Y’, Z’. Who knows? Perhaps people who have a clue what a 402c is (probably nothing – I made it up) or what the difference is between an HMO and a PMT. Damn, I made that mistake again – by “holiday” mean “vacation”. Fact is that in Europe, if an employer offered 3 weeks vacation you would laugh in their face. If they offered a health package with $300 employee contribution per month you would laugh in their face (it’s free (except dental which is very expensive and mostly paid by employees, and optical which is generally less costly but still paid by employees)). Although I don’t understand the system here, I understand that generally benefits are less. But hey, we get paid more and can save the money (in my entire time working in the UK I managed to save pretty much nothing).
Which brings me to the other thing: the death penalty. What, comma, is America still in the Middle Ages? The death penalty makes me very very angry. I believe there is only one country in the world which executes more people per year than the US, and that is China.