10 days of vacation a year, no sick days. With perfect attendance I can earn one more vacation day every four months.

On a noneconomic note, would we still like to watch gymnastics if we could see them in freeze frame?

So she sells fruit in the market, cleans floors, and takes in laundry. This is your lottery winner? He's a gardener, a manual labourer for hire, and he paints houses when he gets a chance.

I think part of the reason for our different perception is that I think of "jobs" as formal employment with income tax withholding and stuff. So I know people who set out a blanket in the market or paint houses in exchange for medical care are working hard, but I don't think of them as having multiple jobs, American-style. Maybe that explains the different perception.

There is no welfare or medicaid or pension or other form of government money to help the family keep their heads above water.

That would tend to make you appreciate the third job more, considering how bad things would be if you didn't have it. Hmm... I just ran into a contradiction. American's hours worked declined the richer the country got -- we used to work 10-12, six days a week like they do in China today. That doesn't make us seem especially hardworking.

What if your husband disappeared, cleaning out the checking account and leaving you $150K in debt, your kid needs braces and you have no dental insurance, one of your jobs is solely to pay for the daycare you need to pay for so you can work the other two, and so, you barely see your own children? What if the other two jobs will only put you in at 32 hours a week so they don't have to give you any benefits?

That's the bad sense of uniquely American -- I don't think they do credit card debt or braces in Malawi. I would hope this person could file for bankruptcy. It's in the third world, where your options could be work three jobs or starve, that winning the third job in the lottery could be crucial.

Curt Schilling donates bloody sock to Hall of Fame: [link]

I work for myself. You could look at it one way and say I get all the vacation I want, or you could look at it the other way and say I don't ever get any. But that's an issue with working hours, too, so not unique. I should be off right now, because we finished up our workweek yesterday, but I'm so far behind I'll be at the desk all weekend.

I guess it's just exempt hours. No overtime pay.

I just ate some noodles, but I'm still hungry, so I want more.

Also, I want to go on vacation. Maybe Moab again. And I want to go visit Page, AZ next weekend, because it came up on both the SO's & my Findyourspots.

We get 20 days (160 hours) of PTO, and move up to 25 after 5 yrs., and 30 days after 10.

Juliana has the same schedule I do, but my company no longer lets us carryover any time (we used to be able to carry over five days). We also get an extra personal day or two, depending on the holiday schedule for the year. My department is considered "support services," so we don't get any time off between Jan. 1 and Memorial Day (so I did have to work on MLK day, which I found out the Friday before what I presumed would be a three-day weekend), but they are giving our department an extra day for the Memorial Day and July 4 weekends to balance it out.

Surprise, surprise.

we used to work 10-12, six days a week like they do in China today

Well, at that time, child labor was legal too. We work less than that now because federal law is designed to protect people from exploitation. Which it does, unless your job is high-level enough to be exempt from overtime laws.

I think of "jobs" as formal employment with income tax withholding and stuff

Which is very first world of you.

I don't think they do credit card debt or braces in Malawi.

But they do them in Jamaica. There's just no so much of bankruptcy "escape." Still not uniquely American, see?

winning the third job in the lottery could be crucial.

Why do you keep calling it winning, and lottery? I'm assuming most people with three jobs have them because they need them, no matter where they live. How far they'll fall without them varies based on personal situation, but few of it are doing it for fun (and I also don't describe paying down debt as 'fun').

would we still like to watch gymnastics if we could see them in freeze frame?

Yes. That picture is awesome, the extension over her legs and the ability to arch her back (extension there too) are jaw dropping. Just because the picture is shocking doesn't mean it isn't beautiful to some (namely me).

Disturbing NY Times Op-Ed about "extraordinary rendition" - or, how the U.S. outsources torture.

I am rendered constantly agog with each revelation that this administration is, well, evil. I don't have any other word to describe this kind of activity, which is clearly not aberrant, but very close to the core of this administration's values.

My boss's dog is pestering me again. I think she wants food. I told her, "I ain't got nuthin' for you." Maybe she didn't believe me. Or maybe I shouldn't have used the double-negative.

I think the most American part of it all is that you could have three jobs with huge corporations, and still not be able to make the rent, because neither WalMart, nor McDonalds, nor City Hospital will give you more than $7/hour, more than 25 hours/week, or health insurance.

Edit: "Most American" in that you are working for entities that presumably have the ability to "take care of you" if they wanted to.