The main issue is that in the US, you have to be lucky enough to work at a company that is generous with things like taking a day off. ou have to be lucky enough to get paid vacation, that they are covered by FMLA, that you might get any pay at all when you are sick. Your drawn-out divorce proceedings and child custody hearings might cause you issues with your job because of attendance. And so on.
This luck is spread out: Call centers are notorious for having brutal attendance policies. Some retail places have decent policies for vacation. Even if you get vacation, you might not be able to take it as you please, regardless of notice - no 2 week trips to Europe for you. And so on.
Just because you've not worked at these places doesn't mean they don't exist or that they aren't peppered across the states.
The reason for this is because unlike in other countries, these things are not encoded in laws. If you are lucky, you don't live in a right to work state or have to take low-paying jobs. These increase the chances of not having some of these things.
Where I'm at now, there are laws about this stuff. I had to take time off from a temporary factory job because I broke my elbow. It Was Paid. McDonald's workers get the minimum legal vacation (4-5 weeks, I can't remember) and get the same sick day benefits as an office worker. Parents get extra time if they need to take care of their young child - how much time depends on things like age of child and if you are the sole caregiver or not. Every woman gets maternity leave if they have a child and no one is going to be stuck to an employer because the health insurance is good and someone in the family is sick.
Oh, and by the way: I'm american and now live in Europe. It is pretty easy to compare these things that I now have a right to but didn't in the US (indiana). Might talk to some of your countrymen in different walks of life to better understand what is going on under your nose because it seems to me that you are quick to dismiss people's experiences elsewhere but are blind to the ones around you.
Um, other countries actually have laws / regulations / entitlements around PTO/annual leave. America doesn't. Literally any day off is a gift from your employer or something you've negotiated, not something guaranteed to you by law.
When it's guaranteed by law, it's a totally different dynamic. You accumulate your PTO. You put in requests. They are usually approved. You don't need to provide an excuse. You carry them over the next year if unused and you get them paid out when you leave your job. This is what Americans don't understand about this concept.
On the flip side, people don't just wander in and out of the office and disappear when they feel like it (as senior people in the US tend to do) without telling anyone. Everyone puts in leave requests even for an hour, even the boss.
I work for a startup in DC, we have 6 random holidays in august because people weren't taking enough vacation -- I guess that's an anti-pattern with unlimited PTO ;).
There are good eggs in the US. People overwhelmingly write to complain on the Internet.
