The intellectuals don't appreciate the forest because they're busy figuring how to make a profit on the trees.

The best things in life truly are free, but our accumulated environmental toxins are poisoning everyone out of existence, all because of governmentally driven need to grow economies at the expense of the people who pay their way.

I agree with the French. Work less, earn less, spend less, consume less, waste less, worry less, and pay less in taxes.

HI again

I believe it is not a question of quality of life.

My concern is that France is a society that lacks energy to reinvent itself, it has lost the energy it had in 1779 when the society uprising destroyed the Ancient Régime. It is complacent.

The US and other societies like China show a level of energy and ambition to progress and improve that I personally envy and miss around Europe (only new EU members like Spain in the last decade or the Eastern European countries are showing that social muscle)

I think it is amusing how Americans criticize the 35 hour work week of because they in general have a 40 hour work week and in some cases put in 50 to 60 hour work weeks regularly. I am at numerous clients’ offices quite often and I can assure you that if someone is putting in 50 to 60 hour weeks they are only working 35 hours of that. I don’t care how many hours one puts in. I want to know how much they got done in the hours they put in. I would much rather take that 15 to 25 hours of doing nothing at work that the 50 to 60 hour people have and use it to do something I like to do. Most of these excess hours are for show, to kiss up to the boss, at least in the “white collar” world. Unfortunately it works in many cases.

Mr. Gil,

Great portrait of the attitude of French intellectuals which has been contagious to the political class and the population.

It is a fine paradox that there is national consensus about their falling "gloire" and at the same time there is national consensus also about doing nothing to curb it !

The French economy has gone nose-diving for at least the last decade and still nobody has the guts to implement serious reforms.

I was recently at a conference from Nobel Price awarded economist, Mr. Edmund Phelps, and he (with irony) naively expressed his surprise about the French sticking to the electoralist 35-hour working weeks law while the country economy is bleeding from poor productivity.

I know no candidate will commit "electoral" suicide talking about cancelling this law. I personally do not like Sarkozy, he seems too egocentric and potentially dangereous for the general public interests.
But I just hope that at least Sarkozy will have the guts to implement liberal economic reforms France needs and will be strong enough to face the overwhelmingly powerfull trade unions (CGT, etc), shaped around the XIX century trade union design of battle of classes.... instead of supporting and pushing innovation and productivity improvements