"in reality, France’s 35-hour week has become largely symbolic, as employees across the country pull longer hours and work more intensely, with productivity per

"in reality, France’s 35-hour week has become largely symbolic, as employees across the country pull longer hours and work more intensely, with productivity per hour about 13 percent higher than the eurozone average. And a welter of loopholes lets many French employers outmaneuver the law." What concerns me from a public policy perspective is that people vote on politicians and platforms based on some simple, plain-language representation of what they stand for. "35-hour work weeks for all!" is pretty catchy, and I might could be behind it. But then when the policy is implemented, it's done so in such a convoluted and byzantine fashion that I am not longer able as a voter to determine whether it was a good idea or not. So we then begin all these partisan debates over the slogan, when in fact the slogan was never really tried. This is a defect of centralized, complex governments: it really has nothing to do with your political stance or what you support or oppose. I could say the same thing about Strategic Defense Strategy in the U.S. If something is explained on way, supported by the public in one way, but implemented in such a way to confuse what's really going on? The system fails. I think the saddest result of this is watching very intelligent and passionate people debate various positions and policies, none of which ever have any chance to actually be implemented in anything near the terms in which they describe. So it's like watching smart people debate the relative merits of their own imaginary castles. As a programmer, I like it when I code something and it doesn't work. The computer language causes me to express my desires exactly, I must transcribe them faithfully, and even then, sometimes I get it wrong. The feedback loop is quick and honest. Such is not the case in these matters.