Haircut

I got a haircut yesterday; my hair's pretty short despite that I told her it had been cut too short last time. I went in to get it cut because I didn't want to wait until after I got back from the US to get one because then it'd be all shaggy, and I don't want to waste an hour of my time in the US getting a haircut either. Also, it's perfect because then I can get a haircut in a month before we go to the hot and sunny south. These are the kinds of things you have to worry about when you can only get your hair cut on Saturdays because you arrive home from work after all the shops close. Problem is, the rest of the 2 million Parisians do the same thing so Saturdays move slowly, especially if you do grocery delivery, or so I heard. We're lucky that P can go mid-week.

I was chatting with the haircutter; she was kind of dumb, but I think it represents how a lot of people here think. She asks me if people earn more as haircutters in the US than in France. I didn't know what to say, but she thought wages here were lower. She claimed the reason is that people are forced by the government to work only 35 hours a week and to work during certain times. I can see how this might limit your earning potential as a haircutter, dependent on the number of people you can squeeze in per hour of work. And if you're forced to work when everyone else works, there might not be as many clients as you'd hope for. Anyway, the conversation turned towards presidents and she then claims that Sarkozy is terrible and that Mitterand was a great president! Mitterand was the communist who introduced the 35 hour week and the largesse of the state currently plaguing the French economy. Even though he's a bit crazy and inconsistent on every issue, Sarkozy is actually trying to change this law (and help out people like my haircutter). This woman really wants Ron Paul as her president, but she just doesn't know it.

The second crazy thing she said was when she asked me how I liked our new president. I was like what are you talking about. She says, you know the new president, the guy that beat Hillary. Wow! I'm glad that wasn't the presidential race. I had to inform her that Obama still has to beat McCain in November.

Along the same lines as the workweek comments, I see every few months an article in the news about the French government seizing tons of cigarettes that have been smuggled through the Spanish border. Why are they brought in? Ridiculously high taxes on cigarettes make it worth buying those on the "black market". French people, who smoke all the time, continue to vote "left" for people that condemn freer markets, although by buying these cigarettes, they are saying they don't approve of these policies.