Three days ago, Roger Cohen wrote a gushing op-ed piece in the Times in praise of Christine Lagarde, France's finance minister, a "tall and striking" woman who learned in two decades at a Chicago law firm that "The more hours you worked, the more hours you billed, the more profit you could generate for yourself and your firm" and is proud to declare in "ringing Anglo-Saxon" that "We [that is, Nicholas Sarkozy] are trying to change the psyche of the French people in relation to work." Should she have her way, it seems, les français will be putting their nose to the grindstone for le patron, American-style.
Never mind the fact that every man, woman, child, dog, and cow in France hates Sarko and is glad to point and laugh now that he and his wife publicly admit their marriage is over: Lagarde's opinion begs the question: Is the American way the best way? Do we want our economic paradigm to be set by billing-happy lawyers? And how did English get to be the language of capitalism, anyway?
Lagarde's position implies the United States has some sort of cultural superiority that translates to a market superiority—which is, of course, its own justification. I beg to differ on both counts. France isn't perfect—the educational system, for instance, is insanely narrow and essentially makes you decide what you're going to do for the rest of your life at the age of 14, and their maternity leave could be better—but they do have little things like a national health-care system. Their idea of "family values" is actually spending time with their families, not spending hours and hours sitting in a car to go at the office to work for hours and hours more. This past week, there was a grève, or general strike, of railway workers who were protesting Sarkozy trying "reform" (or "Americanize"). As much as the strike inconvenienced everyone, do American employees who are getting screwed over (like air-traffic controllers) have any similar remedy?
What's more, I don't see the French economy hurting from working 35-hour weeks. The French system works: People live close to their jobs, they buy food raised by small farmers (who, unlike agribusiness, are sacred in France) in from small family-owned stores, do a lot of walking, and use their ample leisure to go on vacation in the countryside and spend their French-earned Euros on French-made products.
The American way is not the only way, and even if one may point to Excel spreadsheets that say it's more "efficient," human happiness can not be measured quantitatively. The imposition of the "American" way of global capitalism, in fact, makes us all poorer. The demise of the Soviet Union France may, as Cohn points out, find itself leading the left-wing socialist vanguard, but I say this is all for the good. The opposing voice is a necessary thing. (And it's not likely we're going to have a French Red Dawn.) After all, who wants to live in a monocultural gulag of endless hours at the office, sport-utility vehicles, and Wal-Mart-brand processed cheese?