If only Americans were this motivated....

[Eric5273]

Good for them....

Over one million workers protest across France

PARIS, March 19 (Xinhua) -- More than 1 million people marched against President Nicolas Sarkozy across France on Thursday
in a nationwide strike and protest over what they see as the government's unjust economic policies.

Across the country an estimated 2.6 million people attended around 200 rallies, according to the General Confederation of Labor,
one of the nation's largest unions.

Police, however, put the number of protesters at 1.2 million. Nevertheless, the national strike, the second of its kind in only seven
weeks, was reported as one of the biggest since Sarkozy took office in May 2007.

The protests showed dissatisfaction of French people with social consequences of the global financial crisis.

"The replies from the bosses and the government are not enough," said Francois Chereque, leader of the big CFDT union federation.

"Salaried workers won't any longer accept being the victims of this crisis, which they had nothing to do with," Bernard Thibault,
secretary of the workers' confederation, was quoted as saying by BFM Radio.

The unions jointly called on the government to do more to safeguard jobs and to improve workers' purchasing power.

[X5rolls]

You mean to work fewer hours per year and protest more. Doesn't sound very productive to me. Unless you are looking for someone to GIVE you things.

File:Yearly working time.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Wagner]

Originally Posted by X5rolls

You mean to work fewer hours per year and protest more. Doesn't sound very productive to me. Unless you are looking for someone to GIVE you things.

File:Yearly working time.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oh snap!

[Eric5273]

Originally Posted by X5rolls

You mean to work fewer hours per year and protest more. Doesn't sound very productive to me.

There is absolutely no need for full employement anymore, and there will never be ever again. This is due to technology. We just don't need people to work as much as we used to. This trend is going to continue as long as man continues to make technological advances.

My company used to employ 8 workers, and now we employ 5, yet we are actually more productive. I know many other companies that have seen the same trend.

Some industries that are unionized have resisted this change by way of the union forcing regulations. If you've ever passed a road-work site, you'll see people standing around doing nothing. That is because unions have negotiated that a certain number of employees must be present each type of work site, so half of them stand around doing nothing since they are really not needed. The UAW union has similar contracts with the automobile manufacturers. Without such union contracts, we would have even a much higher unemployement rate as half of those union workers are not needed and certainly not productive.

The trend we are seeing here is that number of work hours hardly translates into productivity. If you measure productivity, then 10 guys that take 5 days to dig a ditch and then fill it in are being productive. But if you measure productivity with logic, you will see that we are one of the least productive countries in the world, which is why we have such a big trade deficit. We produce hardly anything useful, and we spend most of our "productivity" doing eachother's laundry, which is about as productive as diging that ditch and then filling it in. Having people work for no other reason than to have them work is not productive at all, unless they actually accomplish something useful.

So the choice is either to have high unemployement, or to have full employement where everyone works less. That is going to be the big decision we are going to have to make in the future. As you can see from your list, Europe has chosen the later option.

[Wagner]

Originally Posted by Eric5273

There is absolutely no need for full employement anymore, and there will never be ever again. This is due to technology. We just don't need people to work as much as we used to. This trend is going to continue as long as man continues to make technological advances.

My company used to employ 8 workers, and now we employ 5, yet we are actually more productive. I know many other companies that have seen the same trend.

Some industries that are unionized have resisted this change by way of the union forcing regulations. If you've ever passed a road-work site, you'll see people standing around doing nothing. That is because unions have negotiated that a certain number of employees must be present each type of work site, so half of them stand around doing nothing since they are really not needed. The UAW union has similar contracts with the automobile manufacturers. Without such union contracts, we would have even a much higher unemployement rate as half of those union workers are not needed and certainly not productive.

The trend we are seeing here is that number of work hours hardly translates into productivity. If you measure productivity, then 10 guys that take 5 days to dig a ditch and then fill it in are being productive. But if you measure productivity with logic, you will see that we are one of the least productive countries in the world, which is why we have such a big trade deficit. We produce hardly anything useful, and we spend most of our "productivity" doing eachother's laundry, which is about as productive as diging that ditch and then filling it in. Having people work for no other reason than to have them work is not productive at all, unless they actually accomplish something useful.

So the choice is either to have high unemployement, or to have full employement where everyone works less. That is going to be the big decision we are going to have to make in the future. As you can see from your list, Europe has chosen the later option.

To an extent you're right. But farms (to quote Michelle "that feed your fat @ss") and several industries that deal with manual labor would disagree with you. Goes to work smarter not harder. However I would easily say that Europe has failed at this motivation. How many large scale work stoppages have happened in Europe in the last decade?

[Eric5273]

Originally Posted by Wagner

To an extent you're right. But farms (to quote Michelle "that feed your fat @ss") and several industries that deal with manual labor would disagree with you. Goes to work smarter not harder. However I would easily say that Europe has failed at this motivation. How many large scale work stoppages have happened in Europe in the last decade?

The percentage of jobs that are manual labor is much lower today than it was 30 years ago, and that number will continue to decline as time goes on.

As for Europe failing in motivation, I believe most European countries have much better trade balances than we do. Last I checked, they still make pretty good cars, they make most of the cell phones in the world, and quite a few other products. In fact, I'm pretty sure Europe as a whole has a trade surplus, not a deficit.

Just a reminder that a trade deficit means you consume more than you produce, while a trade surplus means you produce more than you consume. Apparently this lack of motivation is not affecting their productivity too much.

And China, the biggest communist country in the world, is apparently also the most productive country in the world. Just perhaps there are other motivating factors besides money??

[Thunder22]

The labor force in France strikes, marches, cry like babies every time the wind changes direction. And it's not because of some "help your fellow man" belief, it's because they feel a sense of entitlement and don't want to lose their sweet-heart easy jobs/working conditions.

Isn't it true that once you're hired into a job in France it's almost impossible to get fired?

[Eric5273]

Originally Posted by gresch

The labor force in France strikes, marches, cry like babies every time the wind changes direction. And it's not because of some "help your fellow man" belief, it's because they feel a sense of entitlement and don't want to lose their sweet-heart easy jobs/working conditions.

What is wrong with someone who works hard believing that they are entitled to have good working conditions and to earn a decent wage? I'm not sure I understand why that is bad.

[Wagner]

Originally Posted by Eric5273

The percentage of jobs that are manual labor is much lower today than it was 30 years ago, and that number will continue to decline as time goes on.

As for Europe failing in motivation, I believe most European countries have much better trade balances than we do. Last I checked, they still make pretty good cars, they make most of the cell phones in the world, and quite a few other products. In fact, I'm pretty sure Europe as a whole has a trade surplus, not a deficit.

Just a reminder that a trade deficit means you consume more than you produce, while a trade surplus means you produce more than you consume. Apparently this lack of motivation is not affecting their productivity too much.

And China, the biggest communist country in the world, is apparently also the most productive country in the world. Just perhaps there are other motivating factors besides money??

We're going to not need food or construction anymore...AWESOME. You mean things like trade agreements are bad? Better tell Obama

[Wagner]

Originally Posted by Eric5273

What is wrong with someone who works hard believing that they are entitled to have good working conditions and to earn a decent wage? I'm not sure I understand why that is bad.

Maybe because people will always believe the grass is greener on the other side Even if you gave them EVERYTHING they asked for today, in 12 months..there would be complaints..and then another strike. People are GREEDY by default, which in a socialist system leads to this non-sense.