[revelation]

That is a common experience for me (Germany here). There is no guaranteed vacation (full on neoliberalism), few barriers to firing people (dito), but theres also minimum wage, something that is completely foreign to most right and middle-leaning parties here.

So the evidence seems to suggest that the whole libertarian and socialism debate is nothing but political banter, with little ideological foundation.

[driverdan]

The free market works for jobs too when you let it. If company A offers a job with no vacation and company B offers 4 weeks a year the employee will choose company B. If neither offers vacation you can choose to find another company / industry or start your own.

Job protection laws protect and promote mediocrity.

[beagle3]

It does in an employee market. If it's an employer market (which it is during economic downturns), then company A will offer your a job with no vacation, and company B will offer you a job with no vacation AND no overtime payment. And there are no other companies, and most people can't start their own.

A free market is an inherently unstable equilibrium. If you don't put protection in place to make it stable, it will quickly stop being free.

Of course, if you put too much protection, you get other unwanted effects, like promoting mediocrity. Extremes, either way, are bad.