France’s New President Slashes Taxes and Extends Workweek

The French people, after watching their economy slide into the abyss due to repressive socialist laws, finally elected a right-wing politician, Nicolas Sarkozy, as president, who wants to put the word "entrepreneur" back into the French vocabulary.

His center-right government is slashing taxes and encouraging expansion of the 35-hour workweek that’s killing the economy. It's trying to mandate minimum services during France's frequent transportation strikes. In general, it's trying to make things easier and more profitable, particularly for the small and medium-size businesses that are the backbone of the French economy.

The changes Sarkozy seeks amount to a cultural revolution in a country that ousted its aristocracy in a bloody revolution in the 18th century and, in recent times, has had years of Socialist Party rule protecting its labor unions and workers' rights.

Many French entrepreneurs are ready for a storming of the economic Bastille.

"It is very, very expensive to run a company here, and some people think we're crazy to run a company in France," said Olivier Willkomm, 34, co-owner of OGK Art Design. "I am happy with Sarkozy's speeches about how we want people to work. This is really something new that we haven't heard in France for years." "This is not like the United States. If you want to open a company in France, you're the bad guy. You're trying to make money, to steal money."

"In France, if you say you are a salesman, it means maybe you are a thief or a scammer," said Guenaelle Boch, 32, who gives motivational and sales training workshops through her husband's firm, Idefi.

French society has valued stability over risk-taking. Even today, more than three-quarters of the country's youths between the ages of 15 and 25 say they would be content to be a functionnaire, or civil servant — a lifetime job that comes with subsidized lunches, good healthcare and early retirement benefits.

About 5 million people, or nearly 20% of the workforce, are employed by the government. Sarkozy wants to reduce the size of the public sector by filling only one of every two posts vacated through retirement, and to spur private hiring through tax cuts and employment flexibility.

Although French workers are generally productive when they're on the job, the 35-hour workweek, on top of five weeks of annual vacation, has meant they spend far less time at work than their competitors. On average, the French log 1,440 hours a year, compared with 1,850 in the United States and 2,000 in Asia.

Sarkozy's initial cuts will eat into the government budget. He already has warned his European Union partners that he plans to cut taxes by up to 15 billion euros, or more than $20 billion, a year to stimulate the economy and that he probably will renege on promises to eliminate the French budget deficit by 2010.

The legislature passed the first laws quickly and without active opposition from France's strong labor unions.

"We really want to be our own bosses," said Igor Makovetzki, 33, a DaimlerChrysler sales manager who founded a luxury food company on the side with eight partners. "A lot of people don't like risk. But there is a new, trendy segment of people who are more materialistic. They like money and clothes and cars … and they want to make business."

Source: Los Angeles Times