France's 35-hour work week_ June 17 2008

[natureboyinyourface]

estelle's gorgeous.

[luckyvet]

example of a Parasite who doesn't live in the real world: 1:56

[luckyvet]

1 of 545,543,454 examples of how socialism fucks everyone in the long run.

[lostinseganet]

man that sounds nice 35 hour work week :)

[cannoir]

it sucks. what are you gonna do with 1500 Euros ? prostitution pays better

[93rardo]

At least you have time to spent your money.

[brick4sale]

The French protest over everything and anything if you want to increase the economy you need to be get of a mandatory 35-hour week laws and cut some of the ridiculous benefits that some employees get. France simply cannot afford to allow people to retire at 50 with huge benefits and guarantee all French people jobs with enormous time off and the same benefits, unions serve a purpose but you cannot let them get out of control as they are in France.

[93rardo]

If the French didn't protest like the girly Americans then they wouldn't have benefits that they have now.

[brick4sale]

That doesn't even make sense, girly Americans? France needs to stop protesting over every fucking thing. Transportation came to a halt because they wanted more benefits, sometimes you have to say no!

[93rardo]

Well at least they don't take all the crap from the government and the CEO's like the Americans. I call them girly because they are so submissive and cowardly towards their rulers.

Their exist a culture in America where the CEO's are all hero's and geniuses. Still, they crashed the economy. Turns out their genius was simply greed.

[maofas]

I guarantee them that if they work 40+ hours a week like here in the U.S. the companies will not hire more people as they're claiming, but rather spread more work amongst the same amount of people who will be getting paid the same amount of cash for more hours of work.

[EUamerican]

Here in the US people are working 12 hour days - whether they like it or not...

No doubt family life suffers, as well a physical and mental health.

Working more hours needs to be a choice - and not forced!

[zndprophet]

it is a choice for some. A lot of people in the US are lonely, and workaholics, so they really feel empty when they leave work-its the only place they interact with people, and they can use the money to buy things so people will like them more.

Of course, Im not like that, so I find a way to live cheaper, like getting roomates, and I work less hours.

Some people in America like work more than they like play, it scares me. I'd definitely fit in better in France.

[lastnymleft]

Those that work because they are lonely otherwise exist, but are few in number. Nobody works 2 or even 3 jobs because they WANT to. People work because inflation is rampant (despite the gov's fudged figures) and they are hurting. Greenspan and Bernanke have been flooding the world with USD to prop up an unsustainable US economy. Each USD created out of thin air devalues every USD already in existence, meaning more are required to buy the same amount of goods. Hence rising oil, wheat, rice, etc.

[scoobyDx]

true, very true also decreasing production in hugo chavez's venezuala and nigeria make an impact.

Of course it's always people with little disposable income who feel the crunch first.. the wealthy don't catch a wiff of it until things get REALLY bad.

a shame...

[scoobyDx]

ok - so let's say you and i are competing for a job collecting garbage, and you are only willing to work 30 hours but i'm willing to work 40. Should you be allowed to get the government to force time to stop working because you happen to prefer playing?

What if i'm not the only person relying on my income and i need the extra money? How can you suggest it is moral to prevent me from feeding my family because YOU like to play, and are unwilling to compete with me?

[93rardo]

Yes absolutely the government should step in otherwise in theory we would all be working 90 hours a week.

[lastnymleft]

Government should have nothing to do with work hours, or hours of operation of a business. Such things should be purely between the employee and the employer, and the employer, and the customer, respectively.

[Chinese78]

Like in the good style of XIX Century Economic Liberalism, when widows and orphans died in the street of London. I gave you something, though, that gave Charles Dickens, one of my favorite writers, a lot of good material. Why move toward a more humanitarian society when we can live in a dog eats dog society where everything's private. Let's privatize fire departments. It was like that in the XIX Century and we know how it works for Chicago and London.

[lastnymleft]

How "humanitarian" is it to overthrow what two consenting parties agree to, and force them under threat of jailing or shooting, to do as you wish?

If you don't like the working conditions I offer, then quit. If I can't find workers to accept my current working conditions, I'll offer better working conditions to attract them.

None of that requires government intervention. Government's only make things inefficient.

[zndprophet]

Why did the French elect this asshole-I thought they had better judgement of character

[breaks0]

Part of it was b/c Royal was a weak candidate. I thought she was decent, but the Sarkozites and their media mogul friends spun that fairly minor flairup in the debate where she "lost her calm" into being some kind of evidence that she was too unstable to hold the highest office. That and the fact that she wasn't specific enough in her answers in the debate and on the campaign trail in general, all the divisions in the left, the left's failure to court the immigrant community, etc.

[breaks0]

She should have won easily and the left hasn't recovered from her defeat. Despite political gains in the past year (doing better in parliamentary elections than expected, winning local elections earlier this year and Sarkozy's decreasing popularity). Sarko is like Bush: similar fascist agenda and personality, meglomania, but good at fooling tens of millions of gullible people into supporting some French version of the "American" dream. Don't be fooled, he's only interested in rich white people.

[jfb17042]

LePen would have been the best choice.

[zndprophet]

wow, that makes sense...and does sound very similar to America...what you said happened to Royal sounds like a combination of John Kerry & Howard Dean who opposed Bush in 2004. John Kerry was a statue, an elitist douchebag, and Howard Dean was a smart guy who should have won, but he "freaked out" too (he got a little passionate when he talked about winning future primaries) so America nominated Kerry-it was all very dissapointing. Hopefully the right sees how harmful this guy is though.

[lastnymleft]

"the fact that she wasn't specific enough in her answers in the debate and on the campaign trail in general"

Such hasn't stopped Obama.

[zndprophet]

Why mess with Obama when McCain already flip flopped on social security being privatized, and just recently sided with big oil in lifting a ban on offshore drilling

[lastnymleft]

znd: I'm commenting on Obama because the specific accusation was regarding lack of specificity in the answers in the debate and on the campaign trail in general.

McCain is WRONG, but at least he's specific, so the comment doesn't apply. Obama is WRONG (because he follows the same CFR agenda as McCain), but is DELIBERATELY being vague, and unspecific, so the comment applies

I think they are both scum. All the CFR-candidates (Obama, Clinton, Edwards, McCain, Romney, Giuliani, Huck, etc.) are

[zndprophet]

Government is there to check and balance things, so that rich assholes don't get together and take over everything! Don't you get it-the same shit you're afraid of in the discussion above-is the same thing you want to enable in this ONE!

The problem isnt the government-its the government not doing ENOUGH. If the government doesnt do anything....well...you can be my serf and I'll be your lord, because I am not a sheep, and so I will be dead, or a noble or lord...you will be a serf.

[lastnymleft]

My principles are consistent. YOU don't get it:

Mussolini declared that fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism, because it was the merger between the Corporations and the State, ie between Big Business and Big Government.

Because it is a MERGER, they are one and the same. To increase the power of one is to increase the power of the other. "Progressives" that rail against the evils of Corporatism reflexively call for more regulations, without realizing that just feeds the beast

[lastnymleft]

The only people that like Corporatism are the Corporatists - the Elite that benefit from the system. Consider: Communism is socialized profits, socialized losses. Socialism is socialized profits, privatized losses. Capitalism is privatized profits, privatized losses. Corporatism is privatized profits, socialized losses. We need to counter Corporatism, and get it back to Capitalism: NO corporate bailouts NO corporate subsidies NO "managed" trade agreements (eg NAFTA) NO gov/biz revolving door Etc

[Dedhedted71]

It seems to me that the people complaining are the owners & not the workers. I wish America would switch to a mandatory 4 - 10hr. day work week. We give enough of our lives to the system. We need to have more personal time to enjoy life & spend it with our family.

[teemuruskeepaa]

What if you could have the kind of system you wanted? That's why the communists created the 35 h week in France, but as all leftist efforts, it just created patronizing.

[breaks0]

If you love Sarko so much, go join the bloody fascist's UMP. Or live in the UK or Britain with their draconian labor policies. You don't know what you're talking about, even if you are French.

[breaks0]

The UK or the US rather.

[AirelonTrading]

Then become an owner ...

[teemuruskeepaa]

Moving the problem along.

[bluesky37043]

no i don't the gov telling me how mnay hours to work.