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Peter Schrag: August—Time for Californians to Take a few French Lessons

By Peter Schrag

Today, is the day when toute la France heads off on its month-long summer holiday. No, it's not everybody. Somebody has to drive the trains, keep the nuclear power plants running, staff the seaside hotels and patrol the autoroutes.

But they'll all get their turn -- an average 37 days vacation per worker per year, compared with an average of 13 days in the United States, which is the lowest in the modern world. (Those hard-working Japanese take 25 days). French law guarantees every worker 30 days. Paid sick leave is standard. Americans are guaranteed nothing.

All this is particularly relevant now because the French and their arrangements are back in fashion. Freedom fries are off the menu. But if you read the national pundits or go see Michael Moore's latest movie, you know that French health care is in; so are French trains, French children's services, French social welfare, French education and French technology.

By now it ought to be no secret that every modern society on Earth provides better health care to its citizens at less cost than we do. Only an insane genius would design our inefficient crazy-quilt system. Where else would a national leader be able to say, as President Bush did the other day, that increasing funding for children's health care would make us too dependent on government, and is unnecessary anyway because the kids can always seek treatment in hospital emergency rooms?

But it may be news to Californians that French roads -- not just the pricey toll-supported autoroutes, but most of the regular toll-free national highways as well -- are smoother and easier to drive than our crowded, cracking freeways and bridges.

California roads were once supposed to be models to the world, but are now rated among the worst even compared with the rest of this country. Come back from a couple of weeks driving in France and your shocks quickly remind you that you're back on Interstate 5 or Interstate 80.

And then there are the transit systems -- subways, buses, comfortable high-speed railways that run between major cities at 180 mph, not just in France, but over much of Western Europe. Paris, where the driving is impossible but the transit is great, now also offers thousands of rent-a-bikes anyone can pick up and drop around town. And of course, those trains, and much of the rest of France, run on nuclear power which doesn't generate greenhouse gases.

No, not everything in Europe is hunky dory. The public-sector unions in France and Italy, especially in transportation, can bring a whole country to a standstill, and sometimes do.

By now even the French recognize that if they're to compete economically, the work week, long limited by law to 35 hours, will have to be lengthened, that and a lot of other rigid job protections need to be changed. The election of the conservative Nicolas Sarkozy was a sign of that recognition. Now all they have to do is find the will.
Like the United States, the European Union subsidizes its farmers, particularly French farmers, at shameful levels. Likewise, they have serious problems with immigrants, many of them Muslims from North Africa, Turkey and Pakistan -- and a real threat from terrorists, homegrown and foreign. The French infringe on the civil liberties of minorities in ways that wouldn't be tolerated here.

But despite those problems, the euro keeps rising -- it's now worth $1.40 (the British pound goes for more than $2) -- and the dollar keeps sinking. Among this month's vacationing Frenchmen will be thousands roaming the shopping malls of northern Virginia and other American suburbs exchanging high-value euros for cheap dollars and the stuff, much of it from China, that those dollars can buy.

Talk about reversals. For Americans who've visited Europe off-and-on for the past half-century, the changes are stunning. We used to go overseas for cheap vacations and cheap goods with high-value dollars. We used to laugh at their technology -- clunky telephone networks, prewar plumbing, rattle-trap Citroen 2CVs with bodies that looked like cardboard.

Now the performance and fuel efficiency of foreign cars put ours to shame. Gas priced at $6 to $7 a gallon does wonders, not only for car design, but for transit.

And as economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman pointed out: "As recently as 2001, the percentage of the population with high-speed broadband access in Japan and Germany was only half that in the United States. In France it was less than a quarter. By the end of 2006, all three countries had more broadband subscribers per 100 people than we did."

The difference? Judicious regulation that fosters competition. "As a result, French consumers get to choose from a variety of service providers who offer reasonably priced Internet access that's much faster than anything I can get, and comes with free voice calls, TV and Wi-Fi."

No, let's not all move to France, but maybe we could use some French lessons.

Peter Schrag is former editorial page editor of the Sacramento Bee. This article is published with his permission.

Posted on August 03, 2007

Comments

You had me right up until the part about France needing to turn to a right-winger in the form of Nicolas Sarkozy to revive a supposedly stalled and uncompetitive economy. The notion that France is an economically stagnant country far behind its first-world counterparts is common, but false. A French economist had an excellent deconstruction of this myth here: http://www.eurotrib.com/story/2007/4/15/182027/868 - complete with charts.

All of those positive things you rightly extol about France - excellent roads, a mass transit system the envy of the world (especially its TGV high speed rail, the model for California's plan that Arnold and the Republicans are working so hard to kill), prodigious social services, the world's best health care, guaranteed vacations - are made possible precisely *because* France has for so long rejected the American-style notion that economic policy should be oriented solely around massive corporate profits at the expense of public services.

Since the 1980s California and the US have both believed that to secure jobs and prosperity we have to gut social services, leave workers unprotected, fight their unions, cut back on transportation spending so that folks spend more time on worse roads, and leave millions without health care. France refused to do this, rightly understanding that to live as well as the French do, you have to be willing to live with smaller corporate profits and less spectacular rates of growth. But as links like that I provided make clear, that does NOT mean France is backward or uncompetitive. It's an important distinction and should have been included in any overview of France.

Posted by: Robert in Monterey at August 3, 2007 07:23 AM

The election of M. Sarkozy here in France is in its honeymoon phase, and the Unions have yet to be heard from. In Germany, Ms. Merkel is faced with a national rail strike which could seriously harm Germany's economy. And, France will be faced with this situation too.

Rail workers in France (Cheminots) can retire at age 50 with an inflation adjusted pension equal to their highest salary. And, even worse, transport workers can paralize the economy. France has a long history of captitulation to Unions, and one of the problems with reliance on public transport instead of road networks is that the Unions' monopoly powers make them a priviliged class resented by the majority of the French.

I have explained many times to my friends in France that the social policies, taxes, and the 35 hour workweek and the national vacation policy make French products uncompetitive in world markets. And, I ask them "why are there no French cars sold in the US? Why are the only real imports from France luxury goods, and not mass market item?

And, the demographics are terrible: in just a few years, there will so many fewer workers to contribute to the state pension system that the burden cannot possibly be afforded. Plus, France has very high debt, and they have a legacy of putting the best and brightest young French in Government jobs.

And, of course there is the arab immigrant (Mahgrebin) problem which lies just under the surface. Thousands of cars and businesses were destroyed by rioters in 2005 and 2006, and there has been little progress in integrating these people into French society.

But, the French live well, they don't work hard, their role in the world is declining, the economy will stop working if the pensions and social tax systems are not changed, they are subject to violent strikes, and they are close to bankruptcy, yes, even the national medical care system.

But, what the hell, as Napoleon said "après moi, le deluge."

Posted by: Arthur E. Lemay in Paris at August 8, 2007 12:38 AM

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