The bit on the job growth with companies like Wal-Mart is (again, if I remember correctly) rubbish, though.  Most jobs created in the Dot-Com Boom were quite high-paying (middle- to upper-middle-class), and, while a significant number of jobs were lost when the bust arrived, the losses were not terribly great.  (The unemployment rate never went above 6%.  That's not bad at all, as recessions go.)

As I understand, a large chunk of job growth these days is coming in health care, education, and financial services -- again, jobs that tend to pay decent salaries.  Teachers typically start in the range of $30-50k, depending on the state.  Health care, obviously, contains a wide variety of jobs, ranging from the lower-middle- to the upper-class in salary.  And financial services tend to start in a similar range to teachers, but they, obviously, have a lot more growth potential.

All three of those areas are facing labor shortages, too, and pay, last I checked, was rising at very strong rates.

Wal-Mart will open a store here and there, but there's simply not much room left before running into overproduction.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

The main task of Codice, he says, is to educate French citizens about the way the economy works so they are better informed and less hostile.

The council plans a slick new website, pamphlets and campaigns in universities and schools.

Training journalists, says Fauconnier, is vital because economic stories are often covered in a one-sided way on French TV.

"When a factory closes or sheds jobs, for example, there are lots of emotional interviews with angry workers, but rarely any analysis of the reasons behind the company's decision."

I wonder who's funding them? Somehow I don't think they're doing it out of the kindness of their hearts and a need to re-educate errant journalists.

I may point out criticism of the US but it is a place where people can still come to and pursue their lives relatively freely when compared to other countries. The only class system in America is built on how much money you have which can make it possible for anyone to join as opposed to countries like the UK and France whose class systems are based on priviledge and which family you are part of.

Besides, for all our faults, we DO have a viable opposition party and a wealth of great possibilities to take over the country in 2008.

* I'm adjusting these figures to reflect that France has about 1/5 the population of the U.S.

Via Le Monolecte, one of the better French blog on the left.

Today's post about Harz 4 forced labor was great, btw.

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

He explains this very point elsewhere in his article

The answer lies in the tragic errors of the left. The far left, a force to be reckoned with in France, was unable to unite and present a single candidate. No fewer than three Trotskyist candidates, a Communist and the altermondialiste José Bové were competing for the votes of the same constituency. Their disunity rendered their campaign inaudible

If it were an American election, the strategy would be clear -- destroy him.

But sadly she needs for him to make another mistake, on the order of "genetique" or "racaille" -- but I think with the strong position he holds, he's going to campaign as if on whatever anti-anxiety medication his campaign logo was stolen from: blue skies, flying birds, soft music sweetly resonating "Ensemble..."

She needs to force him to make a mistake, and he's eminently capable of doing it. I think the only way for her really to put pressure on him is to start to make big inroads, fast, into the Bayrou electorate and the way to do that, as I posted yesterday, is to propose a full-scale agenda for institutional reform of parties, elections, finance (especially!) and the state. Sadly, though, its Sarko who is already gaining control of this terrain, proposing a "pole centriste" to his governing coalition; that should have been the first words out her mouth Sunday night.

I realize this is precisely the opposite of what Melanchthon is proposing, but it seems to me that a real "ouverture" and moreover a real promise to dissolve and build a true coalition of the center-left party -- managed capitalism, a more efficient public sector (yes); pro-European (with social and environmental orientation), and for that (much needed) populist edge, a challenge to the predominance of the financial-political elite.

Le Pen is a quasi-Hilter statue that has been pulled down, Royal is that french trollop with the flag, and Sarkozy makes an ugly version of Thatcher.

Clearly, you are supposed to be barracking for Royal and congratulating yourself on not living in France.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

I dunno, seems kinda lame.  I was hoping I was missing some deeper meaning or cultural reference, but apparently not.