OK, something I never thought I would do--I"m about to defend the French.
This isn't funny. The way I read it, I can't distinguish between what the French government is doing and slavery. They are requiring workers to work a holiday that was not traditionally worked and the employers are to turn all wages over to the government.
If this were voluntary it would be OK--but these people are going in to Renault or Le Creuset (sp?) and working and not getting paid.
I think most would gladly volunteer these wages to help the elderly survive those brutal< /s > Paris summers. But being forced to do it without a choice? I don't think so.
The last time I looked this kind of thing was called tyranny.
It's not called tyranny, it's an extreme model of socialism. The left in france got too much power through trade unions and managed to get the 35 hour week(as you probably know). It was done for short term political gains when the left was in government. I guess the idea was to limit the amount each employee works to allow someone who is unemployed to get a share of the work. It might have employed more people but no real jobs were created. Many people in france think this is a disaster, it is ideology before reality. You have no incentive to start a business as the bureaucracy, among other things, is a big problem. I think the British model is by far the best.