Stupéfiants Socialiste

Life, engineered:

In March 2005, the EU relaunched its Lisbon Strategy to become the world's most dynamic knowledge-based economy by 2010. More on growth and jobs and transfering more ownership of the strategy to national member states via national action plans were the two essential elements of the "Lisbon renewal".

Which is impossible under these circumstances:

PARIS (AFP) - Martine Aubry, national secretary of the PS [Socialist Party] for employment, commented on Thursday with the proposal of Thierry Breton to liberalize [the 35 hour per week] working hours regulations, saying that the government is engaging in “social regression”.

[ ... ]

“Bear in mind that the law is there to guarantee minimal protection for workers. Convention imposes it as well since we ratified [rules] of the International Labour Organization”, the author of the 35 hour workweek laws.

The mayor of Lille [Aubry] brings to bear the social dialogue that [Finance Minister] Thierry Breton is using in an “authoritative way” that the majority agrees with, which has just been reintroduced by legal amendment. The decree by the Home Office exempting hotel and restaurant workers’ from the 35 hour workweek law was to be phased out otherwise.

Leave it up to a Socialist: There goes your sovereignty, folks! ILO making immutable, unquestionable rules which one ideology among many can bully through as if it absolved them of their tyrannical desire to zombify the population by making every job, every life, every lifestyle identical. It’s so constricting that even union types found stupid this economy-killing bit of attempted populism.

The real question is: why is a law needed anyway? If people want to work more or less hours than is conventional for whatever reasons they have, why can’t they find a career or employer compatible with that? – either to have more personal time or higher earnings to retire early, support a hobby like collecting art or mountain climbing – or whatnot – why sort of society feels compelled to limit it and make everyone less free?