In many ways, Ms. Maier is typical of France's intelligentsia, overeducated and underemployed...Workers remain at their jobs until retirement, stymieing the promotion of those below them, she argues, yet a system of patronage and stiff legal protections make it difficult for employers to fire anyone.Sounds like the U.S. federal and state gubbamint employees.
VOTE JOHN KERRY! LABOR LEADER TO THE FRENCH 2004!
Bush/Cheney '04- antisocialism canidates!
Wow, how did that tidbit of truth sneak past the Socialist cadre at the Times? Some hapless editor is going to get their butt kicked for allowing that sentence into print...
Might help explain why that airport terminal collapsed. "Gangrene from within."
In many ways, Ms. Maier is typical of France's intelligentsia, overeducated and underemployed. She studied economics and international relations at the country's elite National Foundation of Political Sciences, or Sciences-Po, before earning a doctorate in psychoanalysis.
Underemployed? I would think unemployable with credentials like that. What does she expect out of life? She's basically studied herself into a life of extreme uselessness. No wonder she got bored and rebelled.
My brother goes to France a few times a year for his job and he told me everytime he meets someone new either at a party or a club they always say they have a job that people here would consider hobbies. "I`m a painter - I collect coins - I`m a gardener - I play guitar - I`m a sculptor - I breed cats" Don`t know if it`s true like that for everyone in France, but if it is, I don`t know how the hell that country functions.
This is one of the reasons why France will probably be an Islamic state in about 20 years. The immigrants from Muslim countries probably are working a lot harder and they won't have to worry about any resistance.
2 gees can't go far in France. She must have a poorer lifestyle than most working class families in the U.S. Ah well, to each their own.
It doesn't seem like they need much encouragement.
This capitalist was appalled. Socialism goes against human nature- it's unfair and it eventually collapses.
bttfl
They survive quite well in the wild without any government assistance at all. Some even manage to be entertaining to the rest of us while doing so.
She apparently is not familiar with the Steel Workers. They have earning wages while minimising work to a fine art.
Anything beneficial to the company is hated as bad as Bush.
Work is a game......what can I not do today.
Having ruined their own industry, steel workers have branched out to any company with employees dumb enough to certify them.
HEY!
While your point is well made, some states, such as Arkansas, make it a particularly attractive option. Here you have a third of the people living off the state, a third of the people working for the state and the remaining third make up the rest of the work force...including those jobs done by illegals, of which there are many. Arkansas has the most rapidly growing population of illegals in the country. The benefits with many jobs are sadly lacking or nonexistent. State law here doesn't even require breaks, other than lunch.
I was happy to get my state job, after 5 years of a job where I worked my butt off in horrible working conditions. After the first year, the company yanked everybody's insurance benefits except for upper management. I made enough to keep the bills paid, but not enough to ever get ahead, and I d**n sure couldn't afford to get sick or, heaven forbid, die. At least now, I don't have that worry so much.
That said, there is plenty to criticize about the state, and I'm sure the same can be said of any other state government as well. If an efficient and cost effective way can be found to do something, you can bet it was by accident and you can count on them to correct it post haste. If something starts to make sense, they will change it until it doesn't, and their answer to everything in the state of Arkansas is to raise taxes some more. The corrupt RATs here never met a tax they didn't love. We already have some of the highest and silliest taxes I've ever seen anywhere, and yet there is seldom, if ever, an opportunity that slips by that they don't get the issue of more taxes on the ballot, and if they can find a way around presenting it to the voters at all by calling it something else, they will. The state is always complaining about being poor, but they never seem to think it might be because we are taxed to death.
One of the supervisors in my office always tells me that I have to learn to quit trying to use common sense because there isn't any and that although our mission statement implies compassion, he says that there is only room for compassion when the state's @$$ is covered...thanks to the lawyers.
Any other Arkansans, state workers or otherwise, have anything to add?
I actually applaud this womans message. She is merely pointing out the futility of working hard in such a controlled economy. In an entrepeneurial or ownership society, it is worth it to work hard. In a socialist economy, there is absolutely no reason to excel and there is very little economic freedom, hence no opportunity to benefit yourself.
She is just pointing out the rational frustration of somebody who is working for the benefit of somebody else(the state).
Heck, even the 20th century Soviets worked harder than the 21st Century French. Granted, the Soviets' motivation was to NOT end up dead or in Siberia, but at least they actually worked to support their government. The French apparently have no such desire. I love France, as a life-long student of architecture, art, culture and history, and I have met some wonderful French people. It pains me to see them rotting themselves into oblivion. I wish that they could cut off that cultural gangrene. But lacking that, I wish they would just keep the stench to themselves.