Illustration by Earl Larrabee

Students are lucky. We are allotted three months off of school every summer, equaling twelve or so weeks of vacation or nearly 85 days. For most students it's really only a vacation from going through the motions of school- life still goes on. Summer vacation becomes the best time to earn much needed money for the upcoming year. As the burden of taxes shift further towards college students (in 2003, the average tuition for a public university in the U.S. rose 13.5 percent, and in 2004, it rose 10 percent), students have to spend more of their summer vacations working, and less of it vacationing.

Students are not alone in their ever-diminishing vacation time. The average American gets just 13 days per year. This is 29 days less than the average Italian citizen and 24 days less than the French. But what hard-workin', God-fearin', flag-salutin' good ole American would want to be like the French, you might ask? Well, despite all its anti-French rhetoric, your government wants to be like the French, at least in terms of vacations. And for that matter, wouldn't anyone want more vacation time?

Before 9/11, President Bush spent 42 percent of his first 9 months in office on vacation. Since then, there has obviously been more work, but Bush still vacations 62 days per year, compared to Bill Clinton, who averaged only 20 days per year. This nation's largest supporter of working hard to achieve the American Dream - the majority republican party - is going on vacation for a whole month as we speak.

And it seems like a fine time to do so: after a powerhouse month of passing an energy bill (i.e. a tax subsidy to energy corporations) and legislation aimed at helping out Central American economies (i.e. permission for American businesses to take advantage of more cheap labor) the government is taking the month of August off of work. There will, of course, be a few fundraising dinners, mixed in with masturbatory campaign speeches. But that's not really work.

There must not be any other issues facing our country these days. The Iraq war is over, right? Terrorism has been stopped for all time, no? Every person living in poverty in the world is now rich, has health insurance, and can afford some good vacation time. Not exactly. But we are making progress. There hasn't been a major terrorist attack in an allied country in, hmm, two weeks. Well, shit, the government works hard most of the year, and they deserve a whole month off, damn it.

If only the same phrase could be applied to every employee in this country.

Dan Post Columnist

Wouldn't it be cool if everyone were able to take an extended summer vacation to travel, to relax, to rest, to enrich life in general? It's good to take some time to unwind and de-stress. Society would be so much better in this dream scenario. And at one time, modern society was closer to this dream.

Thousands of years ago, the Roman calendar had 109 official holidays. But current-day capitalism and the almost-free markets that come with it demand maximum productivity. It would be unreasonable to place artificial limits on productivity by mandating holiday time (unless of course that holiday is in the name of God). It's a cut-throat world out there and competition has driven us from 109 days per year to 13.

I know what you are thinking. If every American had 109 days of vacation every year, the lazy people would take over the world, and the people who work harder than anyone else wouldn't get a fair shake. Well, I then ask you: isn't that what has already happened? Our lazy government is taking a month of vacation while you work your ass off to get to the next payday and next month's rent.

I might be forgetting my audience though. It's highly likely that if you are reading this, you are a student like me and get plenty of vacation time compared to the average of 13 days. So now I'm just a lazy, liberal hypocrite complaining about something I already have. But to the work-a-holics out there (or those who have to work every day to get by), just think of how nice it would be to take a break, just like President Bush, and tool around on the ranch for a few weeks, while the world around you moves on without a bump in the road.

Dan Post is an ecology and anthropology senior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.