Valuing Different Values  A friend is working on his degree in management & leadership. He knows that I lived & worked in Germany. So for a class on HR, he askes about vacation: sort of, "Is it true that Germans get more vacation than Americans?"
I confirmed that, yes, they do...but that it's more than just a straight comparison. For example, though Amis earn more, they get less vacation.

Other questions I'd ask are:

1. How far away from work do people live?

2. How accessible, reliable, and viable are public transportation assets?

3. How easy/difficult is it to get a driver's license?

4. How much protection do workers have against arbitrary layoffs?

5. How intrusive into personal life can the company be?

6. If you have a sore throat and a cough, how long does it take to have a doctor see you?

7. If it's 12:30 a.m. and you have a headache, how do you get aspirin?

8. If you have 4 weeks of accrued vacation, can you take it all at once, or are you limited to two weeks at the most?

It's just not meaningful to make these comparisons.