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Home Front: Culture Wars
US is the laziest nation
2010-02-18
AMERICANS may be winning more medals at the Winter Olympics than any other country, but they also take gold when it comes to being the laziest people on the planet.
I wonder how we would rank if hours worked, vacation days, and work efficiency were included? My impression has long been that we put less effort into leisure activities because we put more into our jobs. But bashing America is so much more fun than actually getting the facts.
The US ranked No.1 out of 24 developed countries in The Daily Beast's list of lazy nations, based on statistics on daily calorie intake, data on TV viewing habits, the percentage of the population that plays sport, as well as internet usage, mX has reported.
I'm just guessing that the Beast didn't count the 10 week vacations on the Riviera for our Euro friends ...
The US was first in calorie intake and TV watching and took bronze for sports aversion and internet usage - enough to claim top spot on the podium.

Canadians took the silver after surprisingly leading the planet in internet usage. Bronze went to Belgium, with the country known for its waffles and beer coming second in calorie intake, while Turkey just missed out on the medals in fourth despite being ranked No.1 in avoiding playing sports.

Australians can sink back into their couches after being ranked No.19 on the list. Though ranked the ninth worst nationality in avoiding playing sport, Aussies were 14th in TV viewing, 16th for internet usage and 22nd in terms of calorie intake.

The English were No.5 and second-best at dodging sport.

The full list of lazy nations are:

1. USA 2. Canada 3. Belgium 4. Turkey 5. Great Britain 6. Poland 7. Mexico 8. France 9. Germany 10. Portugal 11. Denmark 12. Spain 13. Netherlands 14. Ireland 15. South Korea 16. Italy 17. Japan 18. Norway 19. Australia 20. Finland 21. Austria 22. New Zealand 23. Sweden 24. Switzerland.
Posted by:tipper

#12  No, dahlinks, we're just resting up for the next time we gotta go save the world (cleaning up after the tsunami, Haiti, etc.)
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie   2010-02-18 22:07  

#11  Hours worked (most recent) by country
# 1 Australia: 1,814 hours
# 2 Japan: 1,801 hours
# 3 United States: 1,792 hours
# 4 Canada: 1,718 hours
# 5 United Kingdom: 1,673 hours
# 6 Italy: 1,591 hours
# 7 Sweden: 1,564 hours
# 8 France: 1,453 hours
# 9 Norway: 1,337 hours

P2K got it. Jealousy rears it's ugly head cause we look maavelous with no effort at all.
Posted by: ed   2010-02-18 19:28  

#10  The Phrench work a 35-hour week and we're lazy?

Desperate to bash America, ain't they?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2010-02-18 18:16  

#9  Thats right! In your FACE like a sandwich! ooohhhh, tired, ooohh hi;;;;di;fha;ifcjk
Posted by: swksvolFF   2010-02-18 17:53  

#8  Productivity measures for hourly workers can be obtained and is reported regularly. Productivity for white collar workers is far more difficult to estimate. Sounds like someone is into USA bashing. We generally come out pretty good in productivity measures.
Posted by: JohnQC   2010-02-18 16:16  

#7  and Mexico is number 7 , please......
Posted by: 746   2010-02-18 11:13  

#6  Um, Spain takes a nap in the middle of the day as does Portugal, France! well France takes lesiure time to new levels and seem pretty content with it. I guess statistics can say what you need when you need it.
Posted by: 746   2010-02-18 11:12  

#5  Well, France comes in eighth so we know this is bullshit.
Posted by: tu3031   2010-02-18 10:18  

#4  Dunno, but as the NSFFW females go, the Czech girls rule.
Posted by: Bio-Research   2010-02-18 10:08  

#3  It's not easy looking good. We just make it look easy. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2010-02-18 09:30  

#2  USA, USA, USA!!!
Posted by: Beavis   2010-02-18 09:01  

#1  ahhhh "breaking news" from the Daily Telegraph Au. I think they have as great an understanding of "news" vs "opinion" as our own MSM
Posted by: Frank G   2010-02-18 08:21  

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