by James Glaser
June 23, 2005

I was reading about how France voted against the European Union's Constitution and one of the reasons given for the negative vote was that Frenchmen were worried that American business concepts would be coming to their country.

Concepts like a 40 hour work week, only two weeks of vacation a year, and health care for only those who can afford it. France has a 35 hour work week, vacations that can last for months with enough seniority, plus everyone has health coverage.

When I was young my dad worked a 40 hour week, my mom stayed at home, and we took a week up north at a cabin each year together. My dad always had his hunting time in the fall and we lived the good life. I can not remember any family in my neighborhood having two cars or a boat, but I remember hundreds of parents going to the PTA and Teacher Conference night.

Today most American households put in 80 hours of work between the two parents and chances of both getting the same vacation time off are slim. Americans work and work and work.

Is that good? Is our quality of life better for it? Are our families better off in 2005? It is something to think about and I guess if I lived in France, I too would worry about becoming more like America.

Are we put on this earth to become more and more productive or are we here to share our lives and experiences with our children? My parents passed a lot of knowledge on to me and I made an effort to do that for my children, but I don't know if young parents today will be able to do the same. Americans are now working more, being paid less, and we can't keep this pace up and expect out future generations to have the same value systems that were passed on to us.

Parents need time with their children and they need quality time. Maybe the way France does it won't work for us, but the way we are doing it now, is not working either