Lazy Sunday

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France -- As a commercial culture, France closes on Sunday. Supermarkets, pharmacies, convenience stores, department stores -- on Sunday, all their doors are closed. What's even more disconcerting for an American coming from the land of 24-hour stores, sometimes these closings extend to Monday, too. And good luck shopping on national public holidays.\nOne wonders how the country can continue to function. Stereotypes of lazy beret-wearing Frenchmen dozing in cafes dance in the mind's eye. Just how lazy are these French layabouts? \nYet change is coming to this land that has so militantly opposed it. Last year, the bastion of socialist labor law, the 35-hour week, was rolled back by the National Assembly, allowing employers to keep workers past 35 hours as long as they are paid for their overtime work. \nIn a recent survey, 57 percent of French workers said they would rather work and receive more money than have more leisure time.\nGaullist presidential candidate Nicholas Sarkozy is even campaigning on a slogan that seems ridiculously obvious from the American capitalist perspective: "Work more to earn more." \nNowhere but in France would that be a radical statement.\nTo be fair, the French have never actually been that unproductive. They work fewer total hours, but their production per person per hour has consistently ranked among the highest in the world. This means that while we American chumps toil endless hours, the French are more efficient. Then they spend the rest of their time eating cheese and drinking wine while we're still working nights. The term "workaholic" has no place in France.\nAll the same, such cliches as "Americans live to work; Europeans work to live" seem unfitting in light of reality. No country has built a leisure culture quite like America and, clearly, the French wouldn't mind working a little more for some extra dough. \nWhat has changed the French government's mind so quickly? Surely, the problems mentioned above have existed for awhile, so why now?\nIn a country whose bureaucracy is legendary, globalization is forcing the government's hand. Attracting foreign investment with the proper, productive image drives this new commitment to work. And they want to get no one's attention more than the dear old US of A. The forces of change in France see the American model as something to emulate for keeping its capitalist engine chugging along with no end in sight. \nIn truth, our system of grinding the worker-slave into the dust for every last penny has problems. In America, many minimum-wage workers struggle to make ends meet, and children suffer from a lack of parenting in families in which both parents work. We're so committed to work that we yearn for a little more vacation time and a day off. As a result, it's strange to see a country slowly dismantle the pieces of legislation, like restrictive work contracts and the 35-hour week, that almost forced laziness upon the nation.\nFor better or worse, it might not be long before the French hear that glorious American chant: "Sunday! Sunday! Sunday"