Emmanuel Todd published L'illusion Economique in 1998. It is relevant to paid vacation as it distinguishes between two different types of capitalism, a distinction that could explain why the situation is so different in US and in Europe: they are different types of capitalist societies. Unfortunately this book has not been translated in English.
The third chapet in his book is entitled: les deux capitalismes (p.69). Todd thinks the difference is based on the family system: individualistic in the anglo-saxon world, social ("souche") in Germany and Japan (and elsewhere) (see p. 73). He also notes that within the US exist people coming from another cultural background than the anglo-saxon model: that could explain why some corporations are more vacation friendly than others? I could not find many references in English detailing this cultural and anthropological explanation (maybe there have been since 1998).
Here is an interesting interview. But it does not touch directly our problem although it does underline the degree of media manipulation in the US, due to the lower cultural level of the population:
"But what is really surprising is the passivity of the American population: with rare exceptions, journalists and academics have all supported the war in Iraq, embracing the inconsistent thesis of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. This ease of manipulation, that is tied to the cultural degradation which I was hinting at earlier.."
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