--- Jim Farmelant <farmelantj at juno.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, 11 Nov 2002 14:40:14 -0800 (PST) andie
> nachgeborenen
> <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> writes:
> > Why is French union density so low, and why does
> it
> > have a social democratic welfare state despite
> that,
> > which, if we had it, would make us think thatthe
> > revolution was over and we'd won? jks
> >
> > >
>
> It is also interesting to note that while the
> foundations
> for the French social democratic welfare state were
> first laid by Leon Blum's Popular Front government
> in the mid-1930s, the French welfare state was
> really built up during the 1960s under President
> Charles De Gaulle, who was perhaps doing a
> Bismarck in order to keep the Communists in check.
>
> Jim F.
>
That makes sense. jks
A true story. I was in Vienna, visiting the house Wittgenstein made for his sister on the Ring (at the time inhabited by the Bulgarian "cultural attache," lots of Balkan hoods with bulges under their arms), and near it is the Austian Social Security administraion bld. I forget what it was called, but the name isn't transparent, and I was trying to puzzle it out,, when a giy came out of the bldg. I asked, Welche Amt is dies? (What office/bureau is this?; probably in better German, at the time I could really talk), and he said, Social security, because without it, there would social revolution! And he walked away. (He had no idea that I was a red.) Wittgenstein's sister' house is very beautiful, btw.
jks
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