Bill Maher, Bernie Sanders sneer at Americans for not demanding European-style benefits

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Daily Caller:

Only a studio audience of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” could give self-described “socialist” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the lion’s share of applause. But when it came to the issue of vacation time at the workplace, both Sanders and “Real Time” host Bill Maher were crowd favorites.

On Friday night’s “Real Time,” Maher expressed confusion over why the public might feel a sense of indignation toward government employees, who have their salaries and benefits paid for by taxpayers.

“Let me ask about this because there’s this pitting in this country now of public workers versus private workers that I really don’t understand,” Maher said. “We saw what happened in Wisconsin the last couple of months. Now in Ohio, the governor there has also passed legislation this week that bars public workers from collective bargaining. And I heard the argument from the other side is that these public workers get six weeks [of] vacation. And this infuriates private workers. Why? Because America, unlike every other country in the world, gets almost no paid vacation and somehow instead of being mad at the corporations and saying, ‘You know what? We want six weeks’ vacation too, they rather drag other people –’”

Sanders agreed and noted how other industrialized societies, particularly European ones, handle vacation time.

“That’s exactly right,” Sanders said. “Let’s be clear, the people in our country as the middle class declines are working longer hours for low wages. There are jobs now being offered that provide virtually no vacation time at all. And in America we should understand this. Our people are now working almost the longest hours of any other major country on earth. People are under stress. They’re exhausted. And you’re right. We should begin to look at other countries in Europe where people get by law five, six weeks paid vacation.”