Letters to the Editor
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Sarkozy and the knee jerk reactions
As an American living in France, I see that there are many French who secretly voted for Sarkozy even though much of the population here, as in the Salon.com community, have a knee jerk end of the world reaction to anything perceived as right of center. Let us be clear, the right and left in France have little to do with "moral issues" like it does in the US. The one single issue which clearly divides the right and left is the economic path of this country. Here are the facts:
1-This "laid back" work environment is bad for business, bad for the economy and bad for the future.
2-If you used to work 39 hours a week and now work 35, you are still expected to do the same amount of work; thus not really improving your quality of work environment.
3-Those who want to work more cannot. The company is PENALIZED in taxes if it's employees wish to work more and earn more.
4-Sarkozy wants to allow companies to ALLOW employees to work more if they want, not do away with the 35 hour work week.
5-The youth of France are leaving in droves because they CAN'T FIND A JOB. Only the safely employed or those on the dole would (hypocritically) oppose this labor modernization.
6-Globalization is here to stay. There are few business start ups in France with it's overly coddled laborers and overly expensive system.
Finally, to tell the French they "will regret" electing Sarkozy like you did Blair is terribly patronizing and shows your ignorance of France or French issues. Kind of like asking Americans not to vote for George Bush, and we see how well that idea unfolded.