Live to Work or Work to Live?

I've always thought of myself as a 'Work to Live' type of person. I'm very fortunate that I love my job (that's what happens when you turn a hobby into work) but ultimately I work so I can have nice things, go out with my friends and go abroad. Being a freelancer my work schedule varies a lot, sometimes working 12 hour days most of the week and sometimes only a few hours a day. Either way, it's my choice.

Here I have discovered that a full time job demands 60 hours per week to our 37.5 hours. On top of that most people do overtime, often unpaid, to take their weekly working time up to 80-100 hours per week. They get up at 5.30am, are in the office at 7am until 8pm at night then bring their laptop home and do a few more hours before bedtime.

With them working such long hours you'd think they'd be compensated with annual leave, right? Wrong. Americans are only entitled to 2 weeks annual leave. 2 weeks! Then with medical insurance averaging at 350 quid a month, sales tax which varies from state to state, food which is even more expensive than Waitrose or M&S and a minimum wage of roughly 2.50 an hour the only bonus to living in America is the housing. Much bigger flats than ours for a fraction of the price and even the worst of the Government housing, equivalent to our Housing Association, is spacious, well-maintained and somewhere I'd be happy living... if I could transport it back to Scotland that is.