Originally Posted by
creber
Other than that I notice with a lot of satisfaction that you no longer deny a somewhat "unenthusiastic" attitude towards work widespread in France, but merely restrict yourself to pointing out isolated examples elsewhere. So in other words, I have a point here, right?
Let me make myself clear. In most ways and to the majority of the population, the labor culture in France is no worse than in it's neighbor EU countries. In terms of State employees, many, but not all, French have seemingly better benefits. In many cases those generous benefits have a negative impact on balancing social spending. Specifically in the area of retirement. French politicians don't seem to have the will to correct this problem, although it seems the current President is trying.
Now let's look at Italy, where the President not only isn't trying to fix social spending abuses, he is actively trying to preserve them!
In fact look at the retirement benefits of every single EU country and compare them to the USA. Many Americans feel that all Europeans are lazy and that there is no way possible that the state will be able to pay for the retirement of the massive "baby boomer" population, while paying out all the other benefits the state provides. Free heath care and such.
You can complain about Europe or the French in particular, but the quality of life is far better in France than in the USA (or in England I might argue).
When the rubber hits the road, and you are negatively impacted by a French strike, just give a Gallic shrug and go have a nice dinner with a bottle of wine. You will be much happier than if you fume and stress about the situation.