Sarkozy
The following is an exlcusive run down of the recent French elections provided by our Paris corresppondent Alphone de Lacey. Conclusion: a probable mess awaits.
Reform minded French leaders like Sarkozy don’t have a winning record. Unless, that is, they want to add to not take away social benefits. Reducing the work week from 39 hours to 35 hours went through easily years back under the last socialist president, Mitterand. Going backwards will not be as easy.
The idea then with a reduced workweek was to force businesses to hire more people to do the same amount of work, thereby reducing unemployment. I helped start a company in France back then and I don’t think it worked. Startups need a lot of dedicated hard workers to get it off the ground not shorter workweeks.
Sarkozy wants to reduce unemployment by helping businesses expand, creating more jobs for everyone. But leaders on the right usually have to back down to the unions when they want to lessen the load of their huge bureaucracy. Why? Because they shut the country down. And I mean really down. No trains, buses, metros, schools, or hospitals. I could go on but you get the idea.
France’s new president, Nicholas Sarkozy (or Sarko l’americain, as some call him because of his admiration for American free markets and high employment) was elected by a majority of French people to have another go at some kind of reform. Right now they all agree that something needs to be done. The unemployment rate has been at or above 10 percent for so long it has become the norm. There seems to be agreement that putting people to work could solve a lot of problems, including the problems of unemployed kids rioting in the suburbs. That’s why Sarko is in office, and Sego, the nickname of Segolene Royal, who’s platform of 100 reforms, is out.
Most of Sego’s promises were improvements to social benefits and she never clearly responded to questions of how to pay for them. Many people who voted for her were voting against Sarkozy because they were afraid of his reforms.
So, what’s next? Reforms and subsequent strikes, that’s what.
Luckily most strikers don’t strike during summer vacations (obviously), except for those supporting the tourist industry. I once went through Charles de Gaulle Airport when the janitorial workers had not been on the job for almost a week. Phew.
Travel this summer could be “perturbed,” using a French literal translation. The real showdown will probably come next October or November, better known to Franco-American expats as strike season.
Alphonse de Lacey
“The idea then with a reduced workweek was to force businesses to hire more people to do the same amount of work, thereby reducing [un]employment”
Any second-year economics student would see through this justification for the 35-hour work week, since it’s based on the well-known Lump of Labor Fallacy: the mistaken idea that labor hours are fungible units that, when reduced in one place, inevitably pop out in another.
… In other news, thousands of angry protesters took to the streets, vandalizing buildings, cars, and state/govt buildings…
You think the french govt would have figured this out by now…
What do you expect from a country that has beer and wine vending machines in the main SEP cafeteria? Can you imagine NASA with a beer machine at the employee cafeterias in Houston? Beer – it’s not just for breakfast anymore !!
At least they are not trying to bomb us!
What do I care if they should even work a 2 hr work week?
Why should any American get themselves worked up about another countries business practice??
I guess this is someone sad and pathetic attempt to make themselves feel better about their TV watching lard ass, cheese stuffed head self!
Lets get back to Who the F… should Care, since this:
“neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket” Thomas Jefferson
Viva la France!
#3: Yeah, and we can get a beer at McDonald’s as well.
So what?
F.
# 3: It would NASA do good to have wine and beer vending machines. They would probably do better.
#6, #7, It’s already tough enough to process probe / scope data. Maybe a buzz for breakfast would help. 🙂 SEP’s pretty laid back for a group of rocket scientists.
They do fine work, though. Largest supernova ever recorded, ctsy. NASA / ESA Chandra:
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/05/a_star_100200_t.html
Yes, another leftie who thinks the lumpenproletariat are too stupid to think for themselves.
And apparently, he has never heard of Minitel.
#12. #10 sounds so much like left wing crap that I already have my raincoat on.
I suggests you take it off; it sounds like you need some fertilizer for those seeds of wisdom to take root.
#4 – I tend to agree pretty fully with that statement.
I also tend to think that what the average American understands about France is analagous to what Pat Robertson understands about The Human Genome Project.
Finally, as one of the many Alpha minds in a Gamma job slaving away in the land of the All Mighty Dollar, putting in the grunt work to the benefit of others… it wouldn’t break my heart at all if Americans decided to value personal time, family, and community… and health and happiness… at least as much as productivity.
If for no other reason that because I’m effin tired of sitting in this effin cube all goddam week long.
((Thanks John C, for allowing me a distraction from the mind numbing “knowledge” work I do))
So how come you’re not in at least a “beta” job, OFTLO? Maybe you’re suffering from an excessive superfluity of self-esteem?
#16 – Oh go on Frank. Tell me all about the virtue of shame and humiliation. I love your pearls of wisdom.
Since you know me so personally, your judgement means so much to me.
13. “Yes, another leftie who thinks the lumpenproletariat are too stupid to think for themselves.”
This from a guy who believes the Warren Commission Comedy piece.
#15 & #17
Frank didnt make any judgements in his post, he asked you two questions, both very valid questions which you never answered. It would seem, given your ability to read and respond accordingly, that you may infact have an “excessive superfluity of self-esteem” and that in reality you have the mental capacity commensurate with the work you find yourself in.
More to the point of the artcile, best of luck to the new president of France.
So what happened in Dallas on 11/22/63, Mark?
#19 – Frank isn’t new here and neither am I. I know what he wrote and I know what he said. And I don’t care to get dragged into these personal little battles.
Mercedes Benz made the worlds best luxury cars, until they stopped the free beer supply to their assembly workers. But this has nothing to do with France! A friend completed the Paris Marathon recently, stopping occasionally along the way for a little shopping, sing song with exuberant locals, a nibble at a deli, glass or two of Bordeaux. He finished only 30 minutes outside his best time, but had the time of his life in the most beautiful city in the world. Today, that world has not changed. The French, God bless them, have a constitutional right to liberty, egality and fraternity. Fraternity, friendship, respect for all individuals, not a pious ideal shouted loudly by religeous hypocrites but a constitutional right. The French government is your friend, if you are French. A bent President won’t make a difference, believe me. All that matters is that the citizenry live inside the embrace of their constitution.
20. Same shit, different day.
#6. Not to worry. Despite living in a country which conquered a continent while drinking its weight in whiskey (and then some), we now think a beer at lunch is unforgivably irresponsible.