Laaaaaazy – The French Work Week

The French have had a 35 hour work week since 1998. Conservative French politicians, angry with this socialist policy, lobbied to have the mandatory work hours limit removed. Bosses can now set whatever hours they want, with 35 as a minimum. Much to the chagrin of French conservatives, most companies have stayed at 35 hours. Conservatives see the shortened work week as excessive leisure time. While French workers certainly enjoy the extra time with their families, the shorter work week saves companies money in these hard economic times. It’s really a win win for everyone involved.

That is the difference between Europeans and Americans. Europeans realize that a happy worker is a good worker. When a worker can spend more time with their family that creates a stronger family and thus a stronger nation. Americans, especially social conservatives, yell about the decline of the family unit and its connection to the country’s decline. They will lay blame on everything from gay marriage and single mothers to socialism and minorities for this breakup of family. Those same conservatives however refuse to support working families so that they can spend more quality time with their families. It just goes to show how much the extreme right really care for this country.

By the way, I don’t believe all conservatives or Republicans are in the same category as extremists. Most aren’t. There are a great many Republicans fighting for the middle and working classes in this country.

Nightly News Roundup – Obama’s Numbers, Stimulus, Pilot Party

NBC: 68%?! Can’t you do better than that?

ABC: Behold! Obama’s stimulus plan is here.

CBS: Party for Hudson Hero

Are You Listening? – Does the Government Listen to Pundits

Eliot Cohen brought something troubling to my attention in a recent Wall Street Journal article. Our government functions in a vacuum. The government doesn’t really listen to pundits and outside advisors say. If they rarely pay attention to people who study policy for a living, maybe even for fun, could we even hope that they listen to us?

Cohen said that in his time working for Condoleezza Rice in the State Department he read outside works with passing interest. He called outside sources, “a background noise of which I was dimly aware, unless it was either unusually nasty, or unusually perceptive, which often merely meant that it fit my own views.” So if you are only following that which supports what you think already, how can you be getting the full picture? You can’t, but most of us are guilty of that behavior. It’s a hardy soul that can read Ann Coulter and Michael Moore without becoming steaming mad at one of the two.

Cohen goes on saying that outside information is seldom listened to because it is just that, outside the circle. Those of us not right in the mix cannot have all the knowledge of what is going on. He compares it to the telephone game. “Government resembles nothing so much as the party game of telephone, in which stories relayed at second, third or fourth hand become increasingly garbled as they crisscross other stories of a similar kind”

I get a great deal of comfort from what commentary officials do listen to.

“What, then, is a pundit to do? The best commentary has an impact, less because it offers new ideas (most ideas have been considered, however incompletely, on the inside) than because it clarifies problems or solutions that the insiders have only vaguely or incompletely considered.”

Blabbermouths like Limbaugh, Ingraham, Olberman, and Matthews are seen for what they are; people with huge egos trying to see who can shout the loudest. “WATCH ME!” “NO ME!” I’LL SAY SOMETHING SHOCKING SO YOU LISTEN TO ME!” Bla, bla, bla. Only serious work gets the attention it deserves. Those talking heads have much less of an impact then they would like to think.

I have hope for the voice of the common people though. We are in the trenches. Policy choices have a direct impact on our lives. If you want to know if a policy is successful just look out in the streets. President Obama’s pledge for transparency and an almost wiki style government, coupled with the ease in contacting our reps through email and online petition sites like Change.org will give us unprecedented access to the halls of power. Will we make use of these tools or just get on TV and yell? It’s clear what gets better results.