When I was on vacation this year in Rome, I chatted for a while with a guy from Sweden on our train to Pompeii. He was in disbelief that Americans got so little vacation (I used all of my PTO days to take this one week vacation in Rome). He was doing the "backpack across Europe" thing, and couldn't imagine only getting one week to experience everything.
When he explained how their system works (pretty much exactly as described by the OP) I was in disbelief that people in Sweden got so MUCH vacation. My job currently gives me 17 PTO days per year, and I don't just "get" that, I have to "earn" it; 2.5 hours PTO per week worked. That time is for both vacation AND sick pay, so if I had gotten sick earlier this year, I wouldn't have had the hours to cover my vacation (I had to take a week of unpaid leave for a surgery, and I came back to work a week early because I couldn't afford to take 2 weeks without pay).
He also talked about how different our police forces are. Apparently in Sweden, you have to attend 4 years of school to become a police officer, and even then that doesn't guarantee you a job, you still have to pass all sorts of tests. Feels like we could learn a lot from Sweden here in the US regarding vacation, maternity, and many other things.
