subject: Is This As American As Apple Pie? [print this page] Is This As American As Apple Pie?
Americans' last names affect their shopping decisions. If your last name begins with a letter near the end of the alphabet, you're likelier to shop more spontaneously. In a study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, e-mails were sent offering $500 for completing a survey. Those with surnames near the end of the alphabet responded first. They also responded first to a limited offer of free basketball tickets. Supposedly, those who have had to wait throughout childhood because of their last name want to be first as adults. For women this applies only to their maiden name when they were "maid" to wait.
Americans don't have a national law guaranteeing paid leave for new mothers. According to Human Rights Watch, 178 countries do; but America, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland are among the very few that don't. What America has is the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, enabling workers with new children or seriously ill family members to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave and this act excludes companies with fewer than 50 employees. Although both California and New Jersey have paid-leave programs 6 weeks of paid leave financed by small payroll taxes - we can't "leave" it at that.
Americans do have 10 federal holidays 11 in years with a presidential election. According to a survey done by Rasmussen Reports, 28% of American adults said there are too many; 53% said the number was just about right and 13% said there were too few. Each federal holiday costs approximately $450 million in pay for federal employees and in lost productivity. Interestingly, Republicans were almost twice as likely as Democrats - 37% to 19% - to say there are too many federal holidays but not almost twice as likely to do anything about it.
Finally, although the lifespan of Americans is increasing, it's not increasing as fast as in other wealthy countries. Between 1980 and 2006 the lifespan of American men increased 5.5 years to 75.1 years. For American women it increased 3 years to 80.7. However, both increases were less than increases in 21 other well-to-do countries. A National Research Council report attributes this to our smoking and to our obesity. Although smoking is less of a problem than it was 30-50 years ago, obesity may be responsible for one-third of the U.S. longevity gap. This gives new meaning to the phrase "tighten your belt".
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