The Vanishing American Vacation

By Don Monkerud, AlterNet
Posted on September 3, 2007, Printed on September 3, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/61122/

In 1882, New York clamored for an appearance by the champion of laissez-faire capitalism, Herbert Spencer, who provided Charles Darwin with the phrase, "Survival of the fittest."

Spencer agreed to meet the captains of American industry, but his appearance was a disaster. Spencer told the assembly they didn't understand his ideas, for he disapproved of American capitalism. Americans, he claimed, are pathologically obsessed with work.