The French know how to pull off a strike, could we learn from them?

thebman

Cow Moolester wrote: »

In the Quality of Life index, Ireland ranks no.1

France ranks 25th

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-of-life_index

Join the dots in your own time....

har de har har! I'm sure it isn't a flawed measurement.

bonkey

thebman wrote: »

har de har har! I'm sure it isn't a flawed measurement.

Can you define flawed, other than in terms of "I disagree with it"?

blinding

Cow Moolester wrote: »

In the Quality of Life index, Ireland ranks no.1

France ranks 25th

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-of-life_index

Join the dots in your own time....

you do know that anyone can edit wiki and it cannot be trusted as a reliable source

sceptre

blinding wrote: »

you do know that anyone can edit wiki and it cannot be trusted as a reliable source

You could look at the footnotes, which include a link to the original economist report on their site. That's why wikipedia is useful.

Of course the report comes from 2005 and a few things have changed since then.

LoveDucati2

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cow Moolester
In the Quality of Life index, Ireland ranks no.1

France ranks 25th

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-of-life_index

Join the dots in your own time....

har de har har! I'm sure it isn't a flawed measurement.



the government did the poll:D

nesf

Anyone who thinks the French attitude to strikes should be emulated should take a good look at how strikes by public unions have been used to create massive havok in order to secure very generous pay deals and conditions for certain small groups of workers (transport are a major culprit here).


How would people here feel if Irish Rail, CIE and Dublin Bus staff could retire 2.5 years before everyone else on full benefits (and a high public sector pension) and that these workers would routinely do complete work stoppages (of up to a week's duration!) in order to protect this?


Edit: An article from 2007 in the Economist discussing Sarkozy's potential fights in trying to remove these "special regimes": http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10141083

I remembered reading it and going "what the ****, how do these people have popular support?"

jester77

bonkey wrote: »

Can you define flawed, other than in terms of "I disagree with it"?

I quickly glanced at it, there are some obvious flaws in it, first divorce in Ireland was not legal until recently, second what does being part of a union or going to church have to do with quality of life? I stopped reading after that.

Mr.Micro

Speaking of strikes what is the point of the Waterford crystal workers sitting in at the plant until the Receiver reverses his decision to close the plant:rolleyes:


I have great sympathy for those people losing their jobs but why or how can the Receiver keep the factory open in view of the strength of the Euro Vs Dollar, the global meltdown, not to mention that the product is old hat and outdated. No point in flogging a dead horse, if banks world wide have gone to the wall it should be no surprise that Waterford crystal has no chance.

bonkey

jester77 wrote: »

I quickly glanced at it, there are some obvious flaws in it, first divorce in Ireland was not legal until recently,

How is that a flaw? Its talking about quality of life today, not quality of life at some point in the past when we lived under different laws.

second what does being part of a union or going to church have to do with quality of life?

Live in or look at countries where you can be arrested or executed for doing such things, and you might figure it out.

thebman

bonkey wrote: »

Can you define flawed, other than in terms of "I disagree with it"?

I'd say that would be my point. Quality of life isn't a universal thing. Different people would put different weightings on different things.

DARKIZE

As one who lived in France for a couple of years, I can categorically tell you the quality of life is NOT higher, nor is the economy in better shape than ours. Unemployment is getting towards 10%, and the goal of many young people is to get a job in the public services because of the shorter working hours and generous pay/pensions, so something like 35% of the population are employed by the government. The French have powerful public-sector unions who resist any concession on their T&Cs, so basically the PS in France has been spoilt for many years. Outside of that sector though, prospects are pretty grim; witness the riots in Paris a couple of years ago. Yes they have fantastic health system as well, but again it has to be paid for......and what happens if the govt try to raise more taxes or cut costs ? Yup....down tools boys.

On the plus side - you haven't tasted cakes until you've tasted the French ones.

OhNoYouDidn't

nesf wrote: »

How would people here feel if Irish Rail, CIE and Dublin Bus staff could retire 2.5 years before everyone else on full benefits (and a high public sector pension) and that these workers would routinely do complete work stoppages (of up to a week's duration!) in order to protect this?

"

If thats the price we pay for a public transport system like the French have, I'm for it.

OhNoYouDidn't

bonkey wrote: »

Can you define flawed, other than in terms of "I disagree with it"?

Because I genuinely can't see how Ireland scores that much higher using that methodology.

But as I brought it up, France has what is generally considered the worlds best healthcare system, better schools and lower class sizes, a universal creche system, a far superior public transport and roads network, better sporting and cultural infrastructure (supplied by the state), a good mix of indegenious industry and MNC's, a fraction of our suicides etc. I'm not saying its perfect, but I think they have a better balance.

I consider these kind of things a better measure of quality of life than the divorce rate and how many people go to mass. They have climate in there ffs. Somalia is hotter than Sweden. So what?