French workers fight for the right to be lazy

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
Well Kidicious I very much get the impression that a lot of these right wingers take up their views rather arbitrarily because bear in mind, what good is being absolutely loaded if you work so much you never get to enjoy it and you're always knackered and stressed?

Actually it's a cultural thing. It goes back to the Puritans. The thing is we aren't breaking up prairie sod anymore. DinoDoc is primative. We don't have to work that much. It's actually bad for our society. It's creating unemployment and underemployment.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
40 hours a week isn't anything near "ridiculous hours". Many, many people manage it just fine.

And in france, everyone manages 35 hours a week just fine... Maybe they are just more productive and efficient. Or maybe there's just alot of redundant bureaucracy here in north america. Or maybe certain cultures just like to over produce for the sake of it. *shrug*

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by PLATO
So...my 60+ hours a week is bad?

Yes, you should spend more time working and less time posting here

[Provost Harrison]

Exactly. I believe that another benefit that occurred when the French changed the law was the increase in leisure spending too with the extra time which created jobs in it's own right, and more jobs created with people working lesser hours. It's the problem of there being no element of planning and leaving it to the elements. Cut the hours and keep the pay the same and the companies will b*tch and moan. It means you can employ more people and the purchasing power of the general populace is greater, therefore surely increasing demand and employment further still? It's all a system at the end of the day that feeds back on itself.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie


Yes, you should spend more time working and less time posting here

I'm sure my boss would agree. Every time I get a minute, I always pull up 'Poly. All my employees don't even ask what it is anymore!

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
Exactly. I believe that another benefit that occurred when the French changed the law was the increase in leisure spending too with the extra time which created jobs in it's own right, and more jobs created with people working lesser hours. It's the problem of there being no element of planning and leaving it to the elements. Cut the hours and keep the pay the same and the companies will b*tch and moan. It means you can employ more people and the purchasing power of the general populace is greater, therefore surely increasing demand and employment further still? It's all a system at the end of the day that feeds back on itself.

Is that the laffer curve of employment?

[Chemical Ollie]

I've thought about the oxymoron of Swedish union leaders. They earn a salary that's about 10-20 times that of their members. Then they sit in negotiations until 0500 in the morning to discuss workday shortages...

[Odin]

Originally posted by Kidicious


Actually it's a cultural thing. It goes back to the Puritans. The thing is we aren't breaking up prairie sod anymore. DinoDoc is primative. We don't have to work that much. It's actually bad for our society. It's creating unemployment and underemployment.

And the cycle of boom and bust.


Unfortunately if someone tried to get European style labor reforms passed the right-wingers would be screaming "COMMUNIST!!!" in no time. Apperently real, red blooded Americans let themselves be abused by thier employers, anything less and you are an evil, God-hating, un-American, commie-liberal who hates freedom and loves terrorism.

[Chemical Ollie]

Pay the hard-working, whip the lazy

[DinoDoc]

Re: Re: French workers fight for the right to be lazy

Originally posted by Dissident
raising the workweek will wreck havok on their unemployment problem.

How do you figure that when lowering it hasn't even had the effect of lowering the unemployment rate the Socialist government touted it would when they lowered it? It has increased the cost of labor retarding the growth of employment even further.

[Provost Harrison]

Damn those pesky economic units for having weaknesses...

[Dinner]

The big problem is everyone now works 1/8 less but they get paid the same. It just made people less productive and more expensive and economically that isn't good. That said the French work more hours then the Dutch. The dutch are the real slackers.

[SnowFire]

Uhh.... folks.... nothing stops people from taking 35 hours per week jobs here in the States, or from demanding more vacation days. And some places do offer that. The French require that BY LAW. How can that be fair? What about people who need lots of money, and want to work as many hours a week as they can (They do exist, people who have run up too much credit card debt and need to reverse themselves)?

If people really wanted shorter hours, nothing is stopping them from demanding it. Heck, I know that I, personally, value vacation over money generally, and when my annual review comes around, I'll be asking for more vacation time in lieu of a slightly larger raise. But I can easily see people who'd want the opposite.

To put it in economics-ese, let people choose their own way to maximize their utility, and not assume that everyone else's definition of happiness is the same as your own.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Oerdin
It just made people less productive and more expensive and economically that isn't good.

Yeah, they're having such a hard time there's riots in the streets so that they can work more hours... oh wait...

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison


Pretty much ditto. Life's a b*tch ain't it?

Yeah,. I even got my boss on my back because I like what I'm doing and have too much overtime (flex) - life sucks