Why the heck did they get Pentecost off in the first place??
Here's the deal. France can't seem to care for its old folks. Big heat wave - lots of death. The answer? Why, more government, of course. Government workers in France will now work an extra day each year - giving up the coveted Pentecost holiday in order to fund $10 billion dollars worth of gubment services. Priceless.
Why the heck did they get Pentecost off in the first place??
Several possibilities :
It must be acceptable for most of us, this exclude Christmas, Toussaint etc.
If possible, it must be linked to a week day rather than a date which can fall in a Week End.
It's better to bring the concern in ou minds shortly before summer when people start thinking and planning their hollidays.
in order to fund $10 billion dollars worth of gubment services. Priceless.
I don't believed in the economic impact of that decision. Nice to encrease production but also you need to SELL it.. I just endorse it for its mental impact. At least, once a year, we shall remind what happened last summer and that summer heat can be a killer.
Unfortunately, our government completely failed to enforce this mental impact:
Too long time between starting to tell about it and the actual decision. During this time, it was a big gossip mess in which almost everybody forgot about the initial cause and goal.
The extra day's work each year is to increase national economic production by 0.3 percent. Companies are to contribute 0.3 percent of the amount they pay in salaries to the elderly fund, Raffarin said.
The economic impact seems now secured by the fact the companies will simply pay a new taxe based ON PAYED SALARIES and not on the EARNING. (Mr Raffarin might fear that those earnings would not be that much)
But, the weird thing is that, to escape these taxes, some companies will simply lower this amount of salaries by firing out some employees and/or paying less otherones.
Some enterprises working in leisure activities like hotels, restaurant etc. will face both at the same time: more taxes and less earning...
So, such effects might lower this economic results and, today, everybody forgot our elders and start one of our favorite songs "I give too much, I get too few".
May be it would have been better to simply get this day off and nothing else.
"The ensuing scandal bruised the government of the center-right prime minister, who has been plummeting in the polls, and conservative President Jacques Chirac. "
I realise that the last Presidential election in France had a boatload of candidates from the socialist/communist side of the aisle, but are tags like "conservative" and "center right" really that relative? Being slightly less socialist than the next guy doesn't make you Adam Smith.Or does it?
Wow welcome back ! My favorite french bashing site. I have had to scrape along using various other blogs like Scrappleface (they have a good thread on France's Outraged Over new U.S. Nickle.
France today lodged a formal complaint at the United Nations over the new design of the U.S. nickel. The reverse of the new nickel commemorates the bicentennial of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, when the U.S. bought 800,000 square miles of French territory for four cents an acre.
"The government of the United States is taunting France," said French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin (who is man)...
It is good but Scott Ott doesn't have your dedication to the French subject.
It has been so long since I have been frog gigging
I don't think I remember how.
Man good to have you back.
Pierre
I was in favor of this turning a holiday into a work day to pay for increased care of the elderly back when it was freshly proposed. But your points give me pause. Employers are going to dilute the tax money collected by an extra day of labor by firing or not hiring, so what's the point?
It is a lot of trouble effecting the whole country like that. It reminds me of using a elephant gun for squirrel hunting. The problems with the immediate care hospitals seemed to be a) staff all taking vacation at once leaving no one to tend to the crisis, and b)lack of air conditioners.
These problems require a surgeon's scalpel instead of a road workers jackhammer.
