It can't happen here:
France, a country where leisure time is sacrosanct, is mulling a radical plan for financing health care after a heat wave estimated to have killed thousands: Make people work on a national holiday.
The idea, which the government floated Wednesday, immediately split opinion and provoked one main question - which of France's 11 national holidays should go? Labor Day, perhaps, or a religious festival?
No, really -- it can't happen here. Imagine the uproar if some politician suggested crimping the kids' biggest day, to pay for grandma's dentures.
On the other hand, Christmas here is pretty much a glorious day of untrammeled consumerism, and we seem to save most of our holiest feelings for Easter.
That's opposed to France, which performs all its mystical worship on Labor Day.
I'll bet the unions will strike if they decide this. Hell, they strike for having sunshine on a cloudy day...
Christmas, Hannakah, Easter, Halloween, etc. purchases do lots to fuel the economy. Taking away any of these will do more damage than good, at least in the U.S.
Anybody who's been to France will be able to see at a glance why their economy, and everything else in that dreary land, is in the tank.
Simply said. Socialism doesn't work and
neither do most of frogs.
Of course, France is currently contemplating cancelling Christmass to apease the growing Muslam population in their country.
Blood will run thick in the streets. They'll polish up the guillotines.
Montre, vous verrez.
This from a Guaridan story
There remains the thorny question of which holiday to cancel. The most likely appears to be May 8, which marks the end of the second world war in Europe. Picking Armistice Day, November 11, would be too sensitive a choice in a country which lost 1.4 million men in the first world war; May Day would be politically unacceptable on the left; and the religious feast days are out of the question.
If there is one holiday the French will never cancel it is the communist holiday of May Day.
