Sarkozy Forces the French to Join the 1980

[Banquo's Ghost]

That article calls for a careful, critical analysis with all the academic distance of my refined Cartesian mind. Which leads to the following balanced and objective conclusion: France is right, the rest of the world is wrong.

...

Wonderful post in its entirety, Louis. If that is an example of your new cynicism, bring me more. (And if written with that wry irony, I don't care - still you have stated a truth that the world needs to hear).

[naut]

in London alone, 300.000 Frenchpersons live. And not cleaners. But the young and the highly educated.

I was thinking the entire of Arsenal's squad, until you mentioned highly educated.

Interesting article, a good laugh.

[InsaneApache]

As it was a quality claret I'll forgive you this time.

[King Henry V]

Personally I don't understand the adulation of "market values", that the be-all and end-all of life is to make money, and how competition, aggressiveness and ruthlesness are all somehow ideal states. Though all your free-marketeers extoll the virtues of perfect competion, in studying economics it is perfectly obvious that no one likes perfect competition, since it means having to give the most for the least, and that is why everyone actually tries to avoid it. Making lots of money is certainly nothing to proud of, it only shows for the most part that one is selfish, ready to stab any one in the back if it means that one will come out tops, and that one has an unhealthy obsession with hard work, probably due in my mind to a lack of friends and, dare I say it, sexual frustration.
Despite what Mrs Thatcher would have had us believe, the point is not to win, but rather to play with flair and panache, and I find this obsession with being the first in everything dashed unsporting.
You know, and I never imagined that ever agree with this, but France is right, and the rest of the world wrong.

[InsaneApache]

Despite what Mrs Thatcher would have had us believe, the point is not to win, but rather to play with flair and panache

You obviously didn't live in the UK in the 70s. Nothing worked, everything was very, very expensive, inflation was rampant and unemployment was through the roof.

To give an example. When I left home in 1977 I wanted a telephone line connected. In those days you did indeed have a choice. Post Office Telecommunications or no 'phone line. After applying for a 'party line' (look it up ) I was told that I would need a deposit of £80 and a connection fee of around £50, then I was told that it would take between 6-8 months to install. I was drawing about £45 a week in those days, so it wasn't really viable for a working class kid setting up home for the first time. Ahh, the joys of socialism.

[LittleGrizzly]

Why is the thought that 'time' is one of the most precious and valuable commodities in man's life so alien to the extragallic world? One of the prerequisites of a quality life is time. Simply time to enjoy the good things in life.

Couldn't agree more, time is the most valuable thing i have and i wouldn't want to spend more than 30 hours a week working if i manage to get through university, to be honest i would be happy to have a fairly modest wage and only work part time say 20 hours a week, earn just enough so i can enjoy all my time off (i seem to naturally live cheaply only one or two expensive vices)

At the end of my life im sure i would rather up with a small house and an average car and have had a relaxed life only working 2-3 days a week than a busy stressful one working up to 5 days a week where i have lots of nice things, a cars just there to get you from A to B (im never going to be able to afford a really beautiful like a gallardo or something so im happy to settle for something cheap that does the job) and a house doesn't need to be big, i don't even mind a terraced house, my time is more important than fancy things, but its worth a bit of time to live a comfortable (rather than extravagent) life (the basics and one or two luxurys as my entertainment)

[Tribesman]

You obviously didn't live in the UK in the 70s. Nothing worked, everything was very, very expensive, inflation was rampant and unemployment was through the roof.

Rampant inflation in the 1970s eh ? Would that be the worldwide rampant inflation that was sparked first by the oil crisis and then again by the other errrr....oil crisis .
Unemployment was through the roof ? Yet Thatcher still manged to quadruple it in a very short time .

Are you doing that old person thing where you is wearing rose tinted glasses apache ?

[Crazed Rabbit]

Personally I don't understand the adulation of "market values", that the be-all and end-all of life is to make money, and how competition, aggressiveness and ruthlesness are all somehow ideal states. Though all your free-marketeers extoll the virtues of perfect competion, in studying economics it is perfectly obvious that no one likes perfect competition, since it means having to give the most for the least, and that is why everyone actually tries to avoid it. Making lots of money is certainly nothing to proud of, it only shows for the most part that one is selfish, ready to stab any one in the back if it means that one will come out tops, and that one has an unhealthy obsession with hard work, probably due in my mind to a lack of friends and, dare I say it, sexual frustration.
Despite what Mrs Thatcher would have had us believe, the point is not to win, but rather to play with flair and panache, and I find this obsession with being the first in everything dashed unsporting.
You know, and I never imagined that ever agree with this, but France is right, and the rest of the world wrong.

Sounds like
A) Someone doesn't make much money, and
B) doesn't come in first often.


CR

[Kralizec]

Personally I don't understand the adulation of "market values", that the be-all and end-all of life is to make money, and how competition, aggressiveness and ruthlesness are all somehow ideal states. Though all your free-marketeers extoll the virtues of perfect competion, in studying economics it is perfectly obvious that no one likes perfect competition, since it means having to give the most for the least, and that is why everyone actually tries to avoid it. Making lots of money is certainly nothing to proud of, it only shows for the most part that one is selfish, ready to stab any one in the back if it means that one will come out tops, and that one has an unhealthy obsession with hard work, probably due in my mind to a lack of friends and, dare I say it, sexual frustration.
Despite what Mrs Thatcher would have had us believe, the point is not to win, but rather to play with flair and panache, and I find this obsession with being the first in everything dashed unsporting.
You know, and I never imagined that ever agree with this, but France is right, and the rest of the world wrong.

Perfect competition eliminates huge profits to a point where newcomers decide they can't be bothered to set up another company in a certain branch, reaching an equilibrum where all wasteful costs are eliminated. It's not so much about screwing everyone, it's about everyone realizing that they're responsible for their own success.
That said, perfect competition doesn't exist except as an economic model and in some branches of the economy it's not even close. It's worthwile to approach it as closely as possible though, and to dampen the damage where it can't be.

I work over 50 hours per week at the moment, but it's only a summer job and I'll quit when college starts again. When I've got my degrees I intend to work around 40 hours at least until I have children, and maybe less until I retire in my 60'ties. If other people prefer to enjoy more free time spending less money, that's up to them. Just don't expect me to work less because it makes you feel bad.