France, a nation of...well, sleepy heads, male layabouts, and distant parents. Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, recently released the results of its four-year survey (1998-2002) of the everyday lives of women and men aged from 20 to 74 in nine EU Member States (Belgium, Germany, Estonia, France, Hungary, Slovenia, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom) and Norway. Here are the Frenchie highlights:

French women top all Europeans in sleep (8:38/day). French men come in a close third in all classes (8:24/day).

French women come in fourth overall in doing tidy-up (3:40/d), French men are next to last (1:53/d) among all classes.

Of all Europeans, French men (2:58/d) and women (2:57/d) are the most epicurean in chow-downs and grooming.

Among women, the French spend 47% of their free time watching TV or videos; among men, 45%.

French mamas and papas only manage 10% and 6%, respectively, of their home lives for baby Pierre. That ties French mommys for 12th overall; French daddys dead last in all classes.

Elsewhere Eurostat cheerily announces:

Euro-zone unemployment stable at 9.0% (the larger EU25 itself is 9.1% and for France alone an average-fattening 9.5%)

Now contrast that with this dreary end-of-time headline from the AFP:

US generates meagre 32,000 jobs in July, markets in shock

The story goes on:

Employment in June, too, was weaker than previously reported, the Labor Department said, with net jobs up just 78,000, far lower than the modest 112,000 initially estimated.

AFP dishes up "it's all bad news in Mr. Bush's America" handwringing when unemployment here is 5.5% down from 5.6% in June, the July unemployment duration fell 1.3 weeks from the June number, and the July numbers are the 11th straight month of job gains during which time 1.5 million jobs have been created.

But while America goes down the sinkhole of steady economic recovery, everything's bright and happy over at the "American counterweight™", EU25, with its stable -- i.e., persistent -- 9.1% unemployment.

UPDATE 08.09.04: The stress of living in a socialist paradise by the numbers:

One of every four French women regularly downs a prescription pill to calm her nerves or lift her spirits.

[A] French government report estimated last [January] that painkillers, antidepressants and tranquilizers cost the country's medical-insurance system more than €16 billion ($20.09 billion) a year, contributing to a widening deficit in the country's social-security system, now €13.6 billion. "Nothing justifies" prescribing those drugs two to four times as often as doctors in neighboring countries, the report concluded.

Almost half of French residents who take antidepressant drugs haven't even been diagnosed with depression, says Alain Weill, author of a CNAM [France's health-insurance fund] study on drug consumption. ... About a third of people taking so-called psychotropic drugs, a category that includes tranquilizers, sleeping pills and antidepressants, tend to ignore the dosage instructions, Mr. Weill estimates. Drowsiness and other side effects of such drugs are responsible for as much as 30% of accidental falls by the elderly.

Why is France so heavily and dangerously medicated? Depends who you ask. Here is Philippe Labro, a prominent French author, slicing the baloney pretty thick:

Mr, Labro thinks the French might be more dependent on antidepressants because of the country's character. "We're a cerebral nation, we split hairs, and we have a more intense faculty of introspection than other people," he says.

An overly medicated nation of Zoloft zombies hardly seems to constitute a "cerebral nation". If you have any idea what Mr. Labro is talking about, please pay us a visit in the thread.

Martin Winkler, a doctor in Le Mans, claims the diagnosis isn't so complicated. "French people aren't more depressed than anyone else," he says, blaming bad medical policy and poor training for doctors.

My money's on Dr. Winkler. (Hat tip: E-Nough!)

[All emphases added.]

The 32,000 job increase number is calculated from Bureau of Labor statistics sampling done of 400,000 non farm payrolls, while the 5.5% unemployment number is calculated from a different BLS survey of about 60,000 households. The household survey showed that jobs actually increased by 629,000.

That is a HUGE discrepancy between the two surveys, the largest I've ever seen, and I haven't seen any news stories this weekend mentioning the 629,000 number from the household survey. Nothing but reporting on the "disappointing job number" with zero mention of the household survey. Can't report anything which may put Pres Bush in a positive light ya know. The payroll survey ignores self-employed individuals, household employees and workers on paid leave.

Wasn't the decision to go to a 35 hour workweek made in part to manipulate France's unemployment statistics to look better (less disastrous?) than they really are?

O.B.,

The AFP story does not source the numbers. I had considereded adding the BLS link for the two surveys but it would have required more explanation than I had time to expatiate. I settled for contrasting the headlines between the two articles: EU25 happy to report its persistent 9.1% unemployment and poor grim America steadily recovering but not fast enough for the French press.

Of course, these monthly figures are by themselves somewhat useless until they can be construed into a larger context. Day traders may sell -- and Mr. Kerry may bloviate -- on mere economic heartbeats, but seasoned economists look for the inertial dynamic, the trend.

There is an old saw from Wall Street: The trend is your friend. The weak monthly payroll numbers continue an 11-month trend of economic recovery.

The 35-hour French work week is a failed bit of French social engineering qua labor policy. The idea was to restrict workers to 35 hours causing employers to make up the shortfall with additional hires, scil., to spread the work around. The 35HWW's failings are legion -- perhaps the most infamous being the shortage of doctors on shifts during France's heat wave mortality last year -- but it has not remedied France's persistent unemployment.

The French government for its part is loath to rescind the 35HWW as it might look as if the legislation was less than a success. Less than enlightened. That it was poorly thought out. That it has been a flop. That's une foirade for our French correspondents.

DGB

The high French unemployment figures are a sterile glimpse of the greater tragedy. Here is a look at what a few Frenchmen are doing to occupy their unintended free time.

While on a tour of the museum at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland on Sunday, a group of around 50 Jewish university students from Israel, the U.S. and Poland were verbally attacked by a three-member gang of French male tourists.

Those Frenchmen were simply expressing the prevalent view in France. No doubt Chirac will find a way to blame the Jews for 'provoking' this incident.

After the Frenchmen accosted the woman, I am surprised some of the jewish male students didn't tear their asses apart. Jews in Europe definitely need to become more militant...they need to confront head-on the jew hating eurotrash scum, and expose them for what they really are.

Can anyone who speaks French tell me if this incident was reported in France's "free" press? And if so, was it given the prominent news coverage it deserves, or buried in the back pages?

I haven't been able to find anything in the French press online. But you know, it's quite new. And it happened abroad (not in France). It may take several days to pop up. After all, that's France we're talking about.

Not to mention the fact that Poland being America's "Trojan donkey," to quote the lovely German media, they might as well have make this up.

Meanwhile, another Jewish cemetery has been desecrated tonight in Lyon, France.

Idle hands...

The weak monthly payroll numbers continue an 11-month trend of economic recovery.

Actually, that's only 11 months of job recovery - I think the recession officially ended Nov. 2002, and the recovery started picking up steam Jan. 2003.

Via Rodger L. Simon The unemployed Frenchmen are volunteering their services to give Israeli Jews visiting Auschwitz an authentic view of history.

Good! Those Jews had better never forget what they did to the Germans! Even today the Germans suffer persecution because of them!

*whew*... sorry guys, my French blood got loose.

Yawn...

Let's see... what's new in the US... oh, this...

My God, you violent, bloodthirsty, criminally insane people Americans are!!! Beating people to death over a video game... sounds just like them! Childish and violent, I tell you!

Next thing you'll see is a really cool TV movie based on this murder to keep them fat and entertained!!!

p.s. Hello again.

I see Zoomerx's days at the beach are over. Perhaps you spent your time looking at the sun? Only way I can explain your blindness.

Yawn...

Let's see... what's new in France... oh this and this. Seems France is big enough to hate everyone. And what would a desecration in France be without this:

President Jacques Chirac led politicians and religious leaders in a now familiar chorus of revulsion yesterday at the latest desecration of a Jewish cemetery to unsettle France. ... It was the 11th similar attack on French cemeteries - Jewish, Muslim and Christian - since April. Victims' groups yesterday stressed that the government needed to translate its well-meaning expressions of disgust into action to punish the perpetrators.

(That's the Guardian, not Fox News.) Good luck on the translation.

M. Zoomerx, shocked by childish murder in America, no doubt would recommend the sophisticated French variety like this whistle-clean wife murder. Crimes of passion done with a little flair have a certain cachet in France and often enjoy a dispensation. Shooting the wife dead at a BBQ with five shots from a .357 Magnum, that's the good stuff of French élan. Nothing childish there. Just hang on till Bastille Day, M. Cecillon.

And M. Zoomerx, who is so fascinated by America's racial past but has never offered a sniffle for France's colonial injustices, probably missed this story:

Some are seen as heroes and others as victims, but Africa's World War II veterans, who fought to help liberate France from Nazi rule during the Provence landings 60 years ago, have mainly been forgotten.

"We can always rekindle memories through the memorial sites... but for most people it's too late, everyone seems to have accepted that France has left them behind," says the editor-in-chief of a Tunisian government media outlet.

Bitterness reigns in Algeria, where residents interviewed by AFP say their veterans were victims exploited by France. One says the men were "used as cannon fodder and then abandoned once they were demobilized".

And this one:

GABON’S BONGO SNUBS FRENCH WWII LANDING PARTY

[A] statement from Bongo's office said he could not accept because he was to preside over three days of celebrations marking Gabon's independence from France on August 17, 1960.

Bongo was one of 22 heads of state or government invited to join French host Jacques Chirac... So far 16 foreign leaders have accepted Chirac's invitation.

(President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire -- thanks Jack for all France is doing there -- will also be among the absent. However Djiboutian president, Ismail Omar Guelleh, currently under investigation for the murder of the French magistrate Bernard Borrel, will enjoy diplomatic immunity during his French junket. See items Nos. 2 and 3 respectively)

[Emphases added, except for Gabon headline]

DGB

P.S.: Greetings, M. Zoomerx. Yes, it seemed a little quiet.

Those jews should be ashamed of themselves,

Have the perfect opportunity of kick a frog in the ass and let those motherfroggers go!!!

It's very disturbing to me, you don't have to let this opportunities go away...

My God, you violent, bloodthirsty, criminally insane people Americans are!!! Beating people to death over a video game... sounds just like them! Childish and violent, I tell you!

Any comment about this zoomerx?

It's France we're talking about. Five kids undernourished and beaten up by their parents. No video game needed here. Living in a trashy apartment. Social services have known there was a problem since 1998. In case you were wondering we're in 2004. The older kid is 7, the younger 13 month-old. Chances are the parents were on welfare all along.

Any comment other than pointing the finger in a different direction?

The Aushwitz incident report is rather dodgy, don't you think? Any more facts surrounding this "story"? But if true, I agree with Victor. As far as the Cecillion murder, it's rather unusual, Damian. Two big headline stories right now in the US involve husbands murdering their and dumping their pregnant wives. Nice.

Yes Carine, it's terrible indeed, these things happen everywhere unfortunately. How are your plans to move out of the country?

The Aushwitz incident report is rather dodgy, don't you think?

I think. In fact it appears to be a common conclusion drawn by many around the blogisphere.
Everyone is saying 50 to 3? Thems good odds in a scuffle.
Im not saying words were not exchanged, or that a woman wasn't grasped by the arm. I just would like to point out that all the material facts presented in the article could have been in the context of these fifty Israeli's wanting to insite a confrontation.
In fact I am quite certain there was a healthy bit of baiting. It is a sign of the time that Frenchmen took the bait. Anti Israeli sentiment is rampant in France. It is institutionalised. Israelis must know this. It would be naive to look at this and not believe some innocent remark was took the wrong way leading to a heated exchange.

But the fact remains that this is Aushwitz. THe gravitus of the setting alone should have been enough to give even a truely slighted French ego reason to hold his tongue. It is a reflection of the attitude of entitlement of Frenchmen, to be outraged at jews, fostered by ambivilance of the French state.

Or to quote Hienrick Himler "This is not just old fashioned Jew hating talk. It's policy now."

M. Zoomerx,

Well, a little volley of headlines and now everyone's warmed up.

Here's the question to you, why is France so doped up? The question is not is America more doped up than France (it's not), but why the French medicate themselves 2X to 4X more than their neighbors. This is a rather astonishing and alarming statistic. Your best guess?

Regards,
DGB

zoomerx,

Yes Carine, it's terrible indeed, these things happen everywhere unfortunately.

Everywhere indeed. Including in France the model ™. That was my point, thank you.

How are your plans to move out of the country?

Going very well, thank you very much. I'll remember to notify you of the big party I'll be throwing to celebrate.

It is institutionalised

The average, unfounded anti-semitic views (Jews and money, "Jews control the media" etc... Even Nixon held such anti-semitic views) is no more prevailant in France than in the US. Check the ADL website.

This is a rather astonishing and alarming statistic. Your best guess?

The French system makes it very easy, the same way your obesity rate is directly related to easy access to fast-food they don't really need... people become lazy. It's indeed a problem.

Including in France the model

The "model" for neglected children? I posted a link not long ago relating to the US leading the industrialized world in child poverty (leading to neglect).

i I'll remember to notify you of the big party I'll be throwing to celebrate.

Great, I'll bring some "petits fours".

The latest report from Bureau of Labor Statistics shows US with GDP per person at $34960. France is at $25578.

Ah, but you say the Europeans have more “Leisure time”. 35 hour work weeks, you see. Average US worker worked 1792 hours, Frenchman at 1453 hours.

But I say this has to do with taxes. When European tax levels were close to those here, the work hours were similar. But as their taxes have risen (France’s tax burden is now 60% of GDP) workers have responded by working less. It just doesn’t pay to work after the government takes its huge share. Welfare benefits are high, so cost of not working is low; compared to what they take home after taxes, doing nothing pays better.

Welcome back zoomer. I was also gone so I didn’t really miss you. Ok, just a little. But not much!

Victor: Are you now in NYC?

Civilizations rise and fall. France is simply an exemplar of the latter. They deserve to be medicated.

Thanks andy. Personally, I never beleived in the 35-hours week system. Here is an interesting bit of statistic however.

Civilizations rise and fall. France is simply an exemplar of the latter.

When you consider that from WW1, France has consistently held its position as the 4-5th largest economy in the world, I wouldn't call it a "downfall". The heydays - "Grandeur" - of France (17th-19th centuries) are simply a bygone era.

Zoomerx,

Including in France the model
The "model" for neglected children? I posted a link not long ago relating to the US leading the industrialized world in child poverty (leading to neglect).

Funny, that's not what I meant but that's what you understood.

As for poverty, I'd rather be poor in the US than poor in France for there's a slight difference. If you're honest, you cannot possibly compare American poor with French poor or Portuguese poor.

But I see there's hope for France. And again it's coming from America.

Yes, right now i'm happily working in Manhattan.
I must stop eating junk food tough, yesterday in Central park i group of americans almost beat us playing soccer!!!
By the way, Eto'o, best player of Africa is already Barcelona soccer player. It's time to die for Real madrid, ha, ha, ha, ha!!!!

As for poverty, I'd rather be poor in the US than poor in France for there's a slight difference. If you're honest, you cannot possibly compare American poor with French poor or Portuguese poor.

What "slight" difference?

I see you've never lived there but you'll soon find out why you may be misguided in making such a generalisation. The very poor in America are much, much more likely to fend for themselves than in France, and despite what you hear, the health system there is a very complicated one that does not benefit everyone the same, far from it (45 million uninsured in the US should give you a hint). I personally know a fairly well-off older French couple who despite their wish to stay in the US, had to return to France because of the astronomical costs of the wife's medical condition. At least they had a choice. Another recent example is an American friend of mine (a successfull graphic artist, fairly well-off) who has a muscle/nerve condition in the neck, who had to wait 5 weeks to get physical therapy, trying to find a doctor that would accept the type of medical coverage that is available to her... extremely complicated, extremely frustrating. But don't take my word for it.

Last summer I had severe adema in my feet and lower legs. Fluids in my body just weren't circulating, and were pooling up in my lower extremeties causing them to swell and blister, damaging tissue internally and externally. I've never been one to run to a doctor over anything less than a threatening condition (this was the second time in 18 years), so it wasn't until a friend of mine (retired surgeon) became concerned about possible clotting (thrombosis) and systemic infection that I went to the hospital and was treated.

I'm one of those 45 million uninsured that you so disparage, and despite what you'd like to believe Zoomer, I was treated no better or worse than someone with insurance would have been. Neither the resident nor attending physician had any idea whether I was insured or not; I was given full diagnostics (blood and kidney), and analysis by both doctors before I was discharged.

Someone with a suitcase full of insurance (or cash) could not have been treated any better, because for (hopefully) the final time - health care is about taking care of people's health, not their finances. Our hospitals appear to understand that better than all of France.

As for your graphic artist friend, I'm having a hard time believing that she had to wait 5 weeks for therapy. I am absolutely positive that therapy somewhere near her was available sooner if really needed, probably immediately. I can imagine a number of realities that might be behind what you describe, but the most likely is that the insurer would not pay the fee that a reasonable therapist would ask. In this case, most therapists would only accept the insurance money as partial payment. The patient would be responsible for paying the balance. The insurer probably had at least a couple "participating providers" -- providers who were willing to accept the company's payment as payment in full -- who could not absorb the full load of the insurer's referrals. My guess is your friend chose to wait for one of them.

I can't think of a reason that your "fairly well-off" friend could not get to a physical therapist in well under a month, except that she was unwilling to shell out anything for her treatment. If this scenario is even close to correct, the insurer's efforts were woefully insufficient, and I'm inclined to think there must have been some recourse available to her had she chosen to pursue it. But look, once again we're confusing taking care of her wallet with taking care of her health. Silly me.

Damnit zoomeridiot do I have to school you again on the health care system in America? Did the last clue-by-four correction not take?

Zoomerx,
I thought you were talking about the poor?
Can you explain to me how you calculate the poverty line? Then maybe, you'll understand why I continue to claim that in many cases you're better off as a "poor" in the US than as one in France. Comparative studies have been published, go check them.

As for the health system, should I assume you think the French system is better than the American one? May I suggest some reading?
http://www.ifrap.org/6-actualite/Sante/LiberteOUI-EgaliteNON.htm
http://www.ifrap.org/6-actualite/Sante/EntretienJC-Seys.htm
http://www.ifrap.org/6-actualite/Sante/Sante-malade.htm

"Benefiting everyone the same," right? It may come as a surprise to you, visibly, how crippled the French system actually is. Nothing to boast about here, really.

Pfff... The only time I had to go to an american hospital (in Tampa), I waited for SEVEN HOURS in the emergency room before a doctor would come to examine me
(And I had to pay $ 650 for a radio , some antibiotics and 15 min of the doctor's time).

So don't pretend to be soooo superior to the french in that domain.

1) You went to an emergency room. There's going to be a wait, and it's going to be expensive. You might have wound up waiting an hour even if you had an appointment.
2) Who said anything about superior? What I said is that anyone who thinks health care is about anything other than health is psychoticly deluded. Speaking of which, think about booking some couch time.

Wow Fred. You got a whole 15 minutes worth of treatment? Hmmm I guess it was a real emergency. If you don't mind me asking was it a broken leg or a DVT or perhaps your were suffering conditions consistant with a heart attack?

Nah antibiotics took care of it. Hmmm could it have been that there were others who had more serious issues than you? Maybe someone came in suffering a blood clot or a broken bone or whatever.

15 minutes of treatment and antibiotics why didn't you go to a clinic (just ask the receptionist who checked you in) instead of going to an emergency room? You wouldn't have had to "suffer" for 7 hours. And the bill probably would have been less than a sixth of what you paid. Emergency rooms are for emergencies... who'd ever thunk it?

Emergency rooms are for emergencies... who'd ever thunk it?

Not anyone who's accustomed to letting the tax base absorb the expense. Like Canadians who go to the ER for sniffles, and don't see the problem with getting Medevac for a hangnail.

If you don't mind me asking was it a broken leg or a DVT or perhaps your were suffering conditions consistant with a heart attack?

If he got a radio, I'm thinking chest infection - pnumonia, maybe.

I think I'm starting to understand the secret to universal health care. You drive away all the providers, and then everyone gets the exact same amount of care! Brilliant. We need to do that.

I like that last post by Doug, sure equality for all in the health care system. And apropos, a healthy sense of humor.

Mmmmm hello.

What a remarkable weblog you fellows run here. I've seen a few weblogs, and this one's, yes, unique. It's almost as spiteful and filled with noxious hatred as *my* weblog is... BUT NOT QUITE! When you see the bile trickling down the stairs of this weblog like Satan's oily black sperm, then we might start comparing.

Silly me, I'm wandering off topic now. I didn't come here to advertise my weblog, I just dropped in to have a look and be impressed.

Keep it up, chaps.

The ever so compassionate French, champions of the downtrodden . Air France employee tells woman with no limbs to stay the hell off their plane because "one head, one bottom, and a torso cannot possibly fly on its own"

No doubt the Frenchies thought she should consider herself lucky that they didn't throw her on the hot pavement to watch her flop around

French culture = Steaming pile of poodle sh*t

A woman from Britain is suing a French company in the US. What a wonderful world it is we live in.

Hi everybody !!

Sur that you missed me a lot, am I right ????

Anyway, I missed you but I had some trouble last months !!

OT

How would Chirac rate on the conservative/liberal scale in America?

“The first human right is to eat, to be cared for, to receive an education and to have housing. From this point of view, we must remember that Tunisia is more advanced than many countries.” - Chirac

Unless you identify Marx as a centrist, that looks left to me.

Welcome back Stephane.