Friedman Scorned in France

Some conservatives blame Milton Friedman for the rise of big government, given his work in developing the income tax withholding system as a bureaucrat during WWII.  So it's a little surprising to read in Dirk Beauregarde's post,the French, those effete socialist-loving big government types, don't have withholding:

"We don’t have « pay as you earn » in France. The majority of French people pay their tax bills in three seperate installments – February, May and September. The last one is the hardest, because you’ve just blown all your money on the family holiday."

Bringing British Cuture and Cuisine to the French

Dirk Beauregarde reports that Marks and Spencer is opening a store in Paris, trying to alleviate the serious French deficiencies in food and fashion.

High on the Hog, Surprising Factoids

High on the Hog, subtitled "A Culinary Journey from Africa to America" is a broadbrush history of slavery and race relations focused through the prism of food, food crops, food preparation, cuisines, etc. It's well-written, although I'd quibble with a couple items where I think an urbanite showed lack of agricultural background.  One was a reference to a slave being given 17 "stalks" of corn to subsist on.  Possible, but more likely "ears".  Another was a reference to an early writer (circa 1600?) who claimed that native Americans could raise 200 English bushels of wheat per acre.  The cite may be accurate, but it shows credulity by the writer.
 
A couple factoids: It has the surprising claim that the death rate for sailors on ships engaged in the slave trade was higher than the rate for the Africans held captive. Although the author, Jessica Harris, is a professor, it's not footnoted within the book.

I could explain it: if the analysis includes the whole trip for the sailors, time spent off the coast of Africa waiting to fill the slave ships was notoriously unhealthy.  And, there was a definite economic incentive to keep captives healthy enough to survive the Middle Passage.  So the factoid might be right, but I'm still uncomfortable

Another factoid: France's Code Noir in 1685 prescribed the diet to be provided to French slaves. The U.S. federal government never had such a provision and apparently no states did either.  That's a reflection of the difference in government between France and the U.S.: our governments are weaker and less prescriptive; French governments, whether monarcharies or democracies, are more centralized and prescriptive.

Moving Day

One thing which always startles me is the concept of "moving day", the various laws which set a specific date for real estate leases to expire.  Apparently there are such laws in some states, pertaining to farmland at least.  And in France according to the estimable Dirk Beauregard it's illegal between November and late March to expel tenants. It's part of an article on French housing, including the imposition of rent controls in Paris. 

French Bureaucrats

Dirk Beauregarde posts on a hard-working French bureaucrat; she worked so hard she wrote a book at work about how hard she was (not) working:

'This is a world where everyone justifies his or her existance with an official paper, a rubber stamp and where bosses, to justify their positions, hold runds of endless meetings – if you want to feel important or be seen to be working, hold a meeting and then get your underlings to write a report on it in time for the next meeting. It’s a world I know well, but I woldn’t totally agree with Ms Boullet’s analysis. For all those people who are doing nothing, there are just as mant running around like headless chickens trying to meet impossible deadlines. [I like Dirk's eye for society, but he does nothing to uphold the high standards of spelling incorporated in the Bloggers' Code.]"

How To Cut Crime

Dirk Beauregarde on Beyonce and how to cut crime, at least the crime of burning cars, which is an old French tradition at New Years.

Paragraph of Dec 18

From RecoveringFed: 
"One day, as I was tweeting on the hotel computer, I noticed that on the French computer one does not have to shift to use the exclamation point. I think that says something about the French."

The Unmentionable in France

Dirk Beauregarde provides more information than some will want, on excretion in France and the UK.  Among the items:

"70% of French workers consider their toilets in the workplace « unfit for use », though 30% still use them – presumably out of necessity.
In French schools a staggering 68,3% of kids never use the loos, either for lack of paper or lack of soap."

What Is French for "Sex Toy"?

"Sex Toy"--it appears from this Dirk Beauregarde photo.

On Long Historical Memories

Having restored the RSS feed for Dirk Beauregarde, some tidbits from his post on Armistice Day:

"In small towns and villages all over France, officials, dignitaries, will have been laid wreathes at the foot of the local war memorial. All very official. There is however no popular and collective rememberance as we have in the UK and that is symbolised by the wearing of poppies.

I like the poppy spirit, similar to the old War spirit where, everyone is doing his or her « bit ». We can all « chip in » and remember. Out here in France, the act of rememberance is official and institutionalised...."

I asked the question of my trainees a few days ago – a group of young French army lieutenants – fresh out of military collège, and come down to Bourges for a year to learn their craft – logistics – thèse are the guys that have to get the supplies to the front line.

« Can you work with the Brits » I ask
« Are French army practices compatible with those opf the British army ? »
General silence.
One young lieutenant tells me that the British « betrayed » the French at Dunkirk. Another enters into an anti British discourse based on the évents at Mers el Kebir, and a third talks of Waterloo. De Gaule would be happy at the anti British sentiment, but in today’s world, we have a long way to go before we can hope to work together.

[Updated: Maybe the Tea Party types will remember the Brits burned our capital? ]

Wine at the Pump

The French may be very regimented, but getting wine at the pump (a la gas pump) is something only they could dream of.

Those Regimented French--Govt. Prescribed Sales Days

From Mr. Beauregarde:

France being France, shopkeepers just can’t hold sales when they like, sales are national évents with precise dates set for when they start and finish. So, they started yesterday and will go on for five weeks. Bargain hunters were out eary yesterday morning. Some stores were offering réductions of up to 40% on some articles. [fixed typos]

Those Tough French Schools--Factoid of the Day

Via Mr. Beauregarde:
"40% of French school kids up to the age of fifteen have repeated a year at some stage in their éducation."

And, within living memory, French kids used to go to school on Saturday.

French See Our Farmers Markets and Go One Better

According to Mr. Beauregarde, they converted the whole Champs Elysses to a farmers market with 8,000 young farmers:

The aim of the operation, which started on Sunday and finishes at 8pm this evening is to remind Parisians that 80% of the nation’s territory is still predominantly rural, even if only 20% of the French actually live there, and 10% of the French still earn a living from the land. That living though can no longer be called a life. Revenues of the nation’s dairy farmers and cereal growers have fallen by 30% over the last two years, and things are not set to get much better with the forthcoming révision of the Common Agricultural Policy. So, today’s « display » of the nation’s agricultural wealth in the nation’s capital is to tell all those big city types that French agriculture can deliver the goods, but not for very long.

Driving While Burqaed (in France)

Dirk Beauregarde has a long post on the arrest of a woman for wearing a burqa while driving.  Seems the French have a law saying the driver's ability to drive must be unimpeded.  But was that really the issue?

Le Fooding and the Flymo

From Dirk Beauregarde, a long post on France and French (the language). The art of good food in France is now, if you can believe him, called "le fooding", following the pattern of creating a quasi-French word by adding "ing" to an English word.

And via Dirk, "hover mowers"   (as in hovercraft).

France and Homogeneity

Read a good book called something like: "Discovering France", which was an impressionistic history of France in the 18th and 19th century, with emphasis on the differences  in language and culture among the different regions.  One of the things you see in Mr. Beauregarde's blog is how extensively the state regulates the society and culture.  This post at Strange Maps touches on both themes: the underlying differences and the homogeneity.
 

Silence Is the Law in France

From Dirk Beauregarde: You aren’t even allowed to mow your lawn on a Sunday (unless you have an old manual mower).

French Food--Dominoes and Subway

Dirk Beauregarde blogs about many things, Friday afternoon in France, lunches, the 35-hour workweek, the jambon beurre..  But these two posts include descriptions of the invasion of pizza delivery and Subway

Health Care Factoids from T.R. Reid

I'm reading Reid's book on health care systems in different countries.  From his chapter on France, a few factoids which struck me:

• a French doctor did the first joint replacement back in 1892 (a shoulder joint)
• French doctors are unionized, low paid, but have no student loans and minimal charges for malpractice insurance
• the French use a smart card to carry the person's health records.  (Dallas Smith--who once worked for ASCS/FSA in tobacco and peanuts and pioneered the smart card for peanuts--is probably somewhere saying "I told you so").