Free Republic

ARIS, Aug. 13 - Finally, instead of dissembling behind ambiguous notions of Gallic joie de vivre, someone in this leisurely land has declared outright that the French should eschew the Anglo-Saxon work ethic and openly embrace sloth.Corinne Maier, the author of "Bonjour Paresse," a sort of slacker manifesto whose title translates as "Hello Laziness," has become a countercultural heroine almost overnight by encouraging the country's workers to adopt her strategy of "active disengagement" - calculated loafing - to escape the horrors of disinterested endeavor."Imitate me, midlevel executives, white-collar workers, neo-slaves, the damned of the tertiary sector," Ms. Maier calls...

<p>With the Legislature deadlocked over whether to raise taxes to help bridge a $38 billion deficit, the prospect of a work force earning $5.15 an hour is real. That reality has some state workers throwing up their arms in disgust.</p>

<p>A quarter-million state employees can breathe easier after the state Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to hear an appeal of a case that would have cut their salaries to minimum wage absent a state budget.</p> <p>The court's decision means that the case probably won't be resolved until after the budget is signed and that state workers will keep getting full pay despite the impasse.</p>

By APRIL BETHEA, STAFF WRITER Hundreds of state employees gathered at the Legislative Building Wednesday afternoon to let legislators know that they are fed up with pay, layoffs, and reductions in their health benefits. The gathering was sponsored by the State Employees Association of North Carolina, a statewide organization that represents 60,000 active and retired state employees. State employees have faced a multitude of challenges this year. Roughly 1,400 employees received notices May 31 that they their jobs may be in jeopardy. Some employees and retirees have run into trouble getting prescriptions because of a dispute in the state's...

Some background info for non-Wisconsin residents: Wisconsin currently suffers from a $ 1.1 billion budget deficit. Our Republican Governor has proposed the elimination of state shared revenue funds to individual municipalities...a plan which has been met with "extreme" opposition from local government officials unwilling to try to cut their budgets.The Democratic controlled State Senate has proposed an early retirement program for state employees as a means for budget savings. Below are excerpts from a memo written by Bob Lang, Director of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau for the State of Wisconsin to Senator Chuck Chvala, re: POTENTIAL COSTS AND SAVINGS OF...

<p>SACRAMENTO -- With the state's budget shortfall growing, groups whose programs are likely to face a new round of cuts this spring have launched an effort to get lawmakers to consider politically risky tax increases.</p> <p>The push is bringing together public employee unions, which have an obvious interest in avoiding drastic cuts, as well as groups that don't normally get involved in tax issues, from churches to advocates for the elderly.</p>