Why work when you can hibernate?

Nicolas Sarkozy, has made no secret of his antipathy to his country's 35-hour work week. This drastic solution to unemployment was mandated by the leftist government of Lionel Jospin in 2000. The intention was to share out the available work more evenly and to allow workers to spend more time with their families. Its long-term effects on the economy are still unclear. In the autobiography-manifesto that he published during his presidential campaign, Sarkozy wrote of "the harm that the 35-hour week has done to our nation: "What madness it is to think that the way to increase wealth and create jobs is to work less!" On Oct. 1, he effectively abolished the 35-hour week by removing fiscal penalties on overtime. The strikes and protests in France this month gave a taste of the unions' reaction to Sarkozy's measure. Sarkozy's 19th-century predecessors would have been amazed that... IHT