Denis Boyles Quotes
The French 35 hour work week is a bribe given to the French people by a grateful government
The French solution to their high unemployment problem was to mandate a 35 hour workweek and ban overtime. The effect on business was to dramatically increase the percentage that the employer has to pay for fringe benefits. This raised the cost of labor and along with the French tradition of not working very hard. The economy weakened and the unemployment rate was still very high.
Denis Boyles, Columnist & Editor, Speech, Arkansas Book Festival, April 16, 2005
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The U. S. Senate had deteriorated to the point where Senators were only working 3 days per week—Tuesday through Thursday. The Senators would spend the other 4 days in their home states—usually raising money for the next election where millions of dollars will be needed.
Labor reform was a burning issue in most of the industrialized countries of the world. The two areas that legislation was under consideration all over were working hours and child labor. There were no overtime provisions, employers were free to require workers to work 7 days for as many hours as they wanted. There were no limitations on the use of child labor. This is one of the classic conservative oppositions to these reforms. Ironically to us today, those against reform argued that it was disrespectful of the working man to take away his freedom to work whatever hours he so chose, and it was disrespectful of the workers role as a head of family to decide for him when and under what conditions his children could work. Germany at the time was a very dramatic example of the struggle as the Chancellor was opposed to all labor reform and Kaiser Wilhelm II felt that reforms were needed. The two most powerful Germans were split on this issue as were people in most countries.
This is one of the earliest calls for the 8 hour work day.
Steel workers were then paid $1.75 for a 9 hour day. This was earthshaking.
The left has always been ambivalent about automation. Many object to it on the grounds that it puts men out of work. However, others such as Lafage, argued that automation was the only economic way to reform the working hours and conditions of labor. The problem at the time was that as long as labor was so cheap, there was no motivation for the manufacturer to invest in better machinery. He and many others argued that minimum wages and their increases increase productivity because it would force manufacturers to invest in more productive equipment to reduce their labor costs.
At the time, 10 and 12 hour work days were common throughout the country and a movement had started to shorten the work day by legislation. Overtime payment over 8 hours was the eventual solution.
This is one of the earliest political recognitions in the 20th century that the significantly longer lifespan would extend the working life of many people and cause them to retire later. The left wing Labour Party at the time saw this as a positive happening. However, 60 years later, extending the age of retirement in England and the United States was very controversial even though the lifespan and health improved even more. Many people wanted to keep it at age 65 where it had been since the 1930s.
Denis Boyles is a journalist, editor, university lecturer and the author/editor of several books of poetry, travel/history, criticism, humor, practical advice and essays, including Design Poetics (1975), The Modern Man's Guide to Life (1986), African Lives (1989), Man Eaters Motel (1991), A Man's Life: The Complete Instructions (1996), The Pocket Professor series (2001) and Vile France (2005), a satirical examination of French elites. His work, as editor or writer, has appeared in many American and European magazines and newspapers; for several years he wrote commentary on the European press in a column for National Review Online, and was an occasional guest on radio and television programs. In 2008, he wrote Superior, Nebraska, a book about Midwestern political and social values (Doubleday) and in 2009, he co-wrote a documentary film, Femmes de Soldats, with French journalist Alain Hertoghe for Kuiv Productions Paris. Boyles recently completed a history of the creation and compilation of the Encyclopædia Britannica's 11th edition (1910) for Knopf. He resides in France, where he taught at The Brouzils Seminars, a graduate and undergraduate writing and creative arts program. In 2009, with philosopher Anthony O'Hear, he launched The Fortnightly Review's "New Series", of which he is currently co-editor (with Prof. Alan Macfarlane), and from 2012-2015, he was a Visiting Fellow in the School of Humanities at the University of Buckingham. In 2015, he joined the faculties of the Chavagnes Studium, where he teaches literature courses, and l’Institut Catholique d’Études Supérieures in La Roche sur Yon (I.C.E.S.), where he teaches graduate courses in journalism.
