OT:Shooting Ourselves in the Foot

You're joking, right? You can start with an unsustainable social support model, declining productivity (30 hour week), declining native population, increasing illiterate immigrant population.

And, um, what has Africa ever contributed to the world? What has the Middle East contributed lately (excluding oil)?

[...]

Whatever keeps you going.

Reply to
Bryan Hackney
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Realistic suggestions on how to proceed into the next century welcome. Suicide by paralysis is not an option for many people.

Reply to
Bryan Hackney

Where do you get the idea Europeans work a 30 hr week ?

Another rabid right wing bags of lies publication ?

Graham

Reply to
Pooh Bear

Same thing could have been said at most any age:

(2000 BC) "Those guys over the next hill are willing to chip rocks into spearpoints for three berries a day! Are we in danger of giving away our advanced chipping technology! We're doomed!

(1400 AD) That Gutenberg is going to drive all our scribes into starvation!

(1950) Those darned transistors are going to impoverish all those old ladies in hairnets hand winding grid wires!

(1970) All those IC's are going to impoverish all those miniskirted young ladies stuffing resistors into TV PC boards!

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In case you don't get the drift-- change is continuous, temporarily painful, but impels you to MOVE AHEAD, from chipping rocks, hand scibing, hand-winding grids, hand-stuffing PC boards, etc.....

Reply to
Ancient_Hacker

I think the interesting thing in all of this is that the predominate language still used is English. I think that speaks volumes to the future of the industries. Until we have to start learning Mandarin or Hindi, we're in good shape. However, you may want to start brushing up on your character recognition and Bali-wood films now, because you KNOW your customer base will also shift to where the money is going (India, China, everywhere else where the new engineers are be educated and STAYING). See ya!

Reply to
Chris.Gammell

I have been to two ball games in my 34 years. The first time was when I was 8 years old and it was part of a cub scouts group. The second time, I was in high school and had a friend who was living with a multi-millionaire who took us to a game and we sat in his loge, which was probably a once in a life time experience. Other than that, I may be known to watch a Carolina Panthers game once in a while but thats about it.

You certainly are correct though about it being a market issue. The same goes for any form of entertainment.

Reply to
Noway2

formatting link

35 then. Excuse me.
Reply to
Bryan Hackney

In article , Bryan Hackney writes: |> You're joking, right? You can start with an unsustainable social |> support model, declining productivity (30 hour week), declining |> native population, increasing illiterate immigrant population.

30-hour week? Where did you get that from...

While we (in Germany) might have had some union-motivated experiments with the 35-hour week two decades ago, the usual contracts were 38,5- to 40-hour week. This dramatically changed during the last couple of years, so that you might get a 30-hour *salary* but work at least 42 hours, not including mandatory (and unpaid) overtime of course.

The happy ones still have old 38,5-hour contracts, but even as a civil servant you will have at least 41-hour weeks these days.

Rainer

Reply to
Rainer Buchty

No idea?

Reply to
Lanarcam

And they dropped it. Most countries in europe have a 38 to 40 hour work week.

Meindert

Reply to
Meindert Sprang

You mean more than half the population of his own country ? :-)

Meindert

Reply to
Meindert Sprang

In the sense that capitalism spreads wealth from the richest to the poorest parts of the world, it's profoundly liberal.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

Homo Sapiens?

Supposedly the first man or woman came from there.

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Siol
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Reply to
SioL

========================================

There are many millions of unemployed Europeans who work 0 hours per week.

There are also many millions of retired and early retired Europeans who work 0 hours per week.

But the Europeans are so wealthy, as a whole, sensibly nobody goes hungry, without clothing or shelter, or even without small luxuries such as a TV set, a pint of beer, a cigarette, and a free health service Europeans have never had it so good.

That's why Europe is so popular with half-starved immigrants. ===========================================

Reply to
Reg Edwards

You'll note that the article refers to the 35 hr week ( in France ) being effectively abolished actually.

Around 37 hrs is more typical elsewhere anyway. There's not quite the same culture of working unpaid overtime as in the US but it does happen here too.

Graham

Reply to
Pooh Bear

How is US society declining? Incomes, health, longevity, education levels have been increasing steadily for 200 years, even while we have admitted tens of millions of immigrants.

Any country that admits as many immigrants as we do, will have a high illiteracy rate. Besides, some countries just lie about it. Do you really think Cuba's literacy rate is 99%?

John

Reply to
John Larkin

Sheeeesh! If you count the breaks it's even less than 30 hours.

When I was doing the big motor control project at Bosch in Bühlertal, Germany, I'd barely get in the door and they'd break for "breakfast".

I finally shamed them into working American hours by walking into the lab and picking up a soldering iron and doing the tech work myself ;-)

...Jim Thompson

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|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

Ok, but which one?

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  Keith
Reply to
Keith Williams

Same with me in Moscow. They pretty much drank tea, ate pastries, and played cards all day. "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us."

I'm working on a couple of projects with Brit and Irish companies, but they seem to take years to get anything done.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

I work in England, and I haven't done a 30 hour week since I started at this place 18 months ago - is there something here I should know?

;)

PeteS

Reply to
PeteS

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