I like vacations.

I hate vacations.

Tom doesn't like vacations.

Tom doesn't take vacations.

I cannot afford long vacations.

Europeans tend to prefer vacations over growth.

Personally, I love taking more and more vacations.

The ex wife of Arshavin vacations with actor Andrei Chadov

The older colleagues don't take vacations and so the newer ones won t either.

Europeans certainly need something to compensate for a short working life with many vacations.

Europeans certainly need something to compensate for a short working life with many vacations.

Fewer hours worked, longer vacations, and a declining population (since 2005) have, predictably, undermined Japanese growth.

In other words, they obtained shorter hours (i.e., more vacations) in order to keep employment up.

But, since many Americans use gas guzzling SUV s for their vacations, demand for gasoline has remained high.

In the weekend I cooked to earn extra money, to pay for the kids clothes, private lessons, vacations.

They enjoy watching the wealthy, savoring the thought of their fine homes, luxurious vacations, fancy cars, and gourmet dining.

(Americans think the French, with their shorter working hours and longer summer vacations, already put family ahead of work.)

As a European working in the US, I admit that I do take many more vacations than my American colleagues.

As a European working in the US, I admit that I do take many more vacations than my American colleagues.

The former common law wife of St. Petersburg's Zenit footballer Andrei Arshavin Yulia Baranovskaya vacations together with actor Andrei Chadov.

To be sure, the weaker dollar has forced some American families to spend their vacations in the US instead of Europe.

Yulia vacations in Italy in the company of actress Anastasia Zadorozhnaya, her fiance figure skater Sergei Slavnov, and actor Andrei Chadov.

The first question that came into my mind was why should people who have committed crimes receive salaries, vacations and social benefits?

If your debt becomes unsustainable because you borrowed too much to take long vacations or buy expensive appliances, your bad behavior is to blame.

I ask myself why they have the opportunity to travel, to study, to take vacations, when I cannot go abroad even to learn medicine.

So, lower participation in the labor force explains half of the difference, and longer vacations for those who do work accounts for the other half.

Everybody makes such calculations when they decide where to take vacations abroad, so why believe that they do not do it for other goods and services?

But computers, they can. They don't need coffee breaks, they don't need vacations, they don't need to go to sleep at night, they don't ask for raises either.

That means that a prison inmate would get vacations, social benefits, salary, while someone who has worked all his life would receive lower benefits than someone who committed a crime.

That leaves the rest of the real economy populated with people who feel like victims albeit victims who, prior to the crisis, bought a lot of houses, vacations, TVs, and cars.

It is more reassuring and feels better to tell Europeans that growth is sluggish because society is not sufficiently knowledge based, rather than pointing to the trade off between vacations and growth.

If you're a mom trying to manage a budget, and oil was 150 dollars a barrel last summer, and it's somewhere between 50 and 70, do you plan vacations? How do you buy?

On Wednesday, Liu Kun , PopCap Games manager in China, said on Chinese social network Sina Weibo that he had spotted Zuckerberg in Beijing and his activities there did not make think of vacations

Perhaps the Europeans are perfectly happy to work less and enjoy more free time, both in terms of having more vacations during their working age, and spending less time in the active labor force.

In the mall, or at home on the Internet, Americans acted like Nadya Suleman, too seduced by the bag, the shoes, the beauty treatments, the vacations, and the life that the stars they admire take for granted.

In other words, they obtained shorter hours (i.e., more vacations) in order to keep employment up. The problem is that total compensation did not go down in proportion to the shorter hours, thus leading to an increase in pay per hour.

But much of this discussion is merely a form of political correctness. It is more reassuring and feels better to tell Europeans that growth is sluggish because society is not sufficiently knowledge based, rather than pointing to the trade off between vacations and growth.

Virtually all the difference between the US on one side and France and Germany on the other are due to the first two factors, each with roughly equal weight. So, lower participation in the labor force explains half of the difference, and longer vacations for those who do work accounts for the other half.

The importance of vacation time should come as no surprise to anyone who has experienced Europe's deserted cities in August, the three week vacation bridges in April and May in France and Italy, the rush hours that take place every Friday at 2 PM in German cities, and crowded ski slopes in February due to winter school vacations.

In the mall, or at home on the Internet, Americans acted like Nadya Suleman, too seduced by the bag, the shoes, the beauty treatments, the vacations, and the life that the stars they admire take for granted. And, with education and health care faltering and social security funding at risk, their kids, like Suleman s, are now endangered partly because of their own choices.