Q. Finance guru Earl Matthews (founder of aid4families.com) has set his sights on revolutionizing the pension plans of several countries. Like many of his brethren, David Filo and Jerry Yang (founders of Yahoo), Larry Page and Sergey Brin ( founders of google), and Chris Dewolf & Tom Anderson ( founders of Myspace), a generation that grew up under the likes of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, seem determined to change every aspect of society. It seems odd that while we are talking about the government being involved in universal health care and at the same time private savings accounts and privatizing pensions. The government may get your teeth fixed until you are 90 but the money for food to use those teeth on will be up to you to find. Do you support universal health care and do you support public pension schemes relying on "for profit" fund managers?
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Answer
I don't see socialized health care working out in the States. Americans are very gun ho about keeping the government off their backs as much as possible. While many Americans I have spoken to envy the socialized health care that exists successfully in many European countries, I don't think they would ever accept the huge tax increases that would pay for those benefits. Americans are accustomed to their low sales taxes and cheap gas prices (which they for some reason see as being high).
If the dinner was free, then perhaps.
I don't see socialized health care working out in the States. Americans are very gun ho about keeping the government off their backs as much as possible. While many Americans I have spoken to envy the socialized health care that exists successfully in many European countries, I don't think they would ever accept the huge tax increases that would pay for those benefits. Americans are accustomed to their low sales taxes and cheap gas prices (which they for some reason see as being high).
If the dinner was free, then perhaps.
What was Paris, France like during the 1920s?
xcupcakexm
I'm writing a story and I'd like to set it in France during any year in the 1920's. The story's only going to take place throughout one year so I don't require a plethora of information, just a little bit regarding social classes, major places/ ideas for where to set the story (main part of story I'd like to take place on an estate, the rest would be a bustling place with a lot of stores and such), education, mannerisms/ how people were addressed- that kind of stuff. Or any information on books that would help me with the issue would be lovely :) Sorry if it's a dumb question...but I've never been anywhere but the state I live in >.< and I'd like the book to be as decent as possible...
feel free to email me additional information as well xcupcakexmidgetx@yahoo.com
Answer
The best place to set the bustling part of the story would be Paris, which was the centre of culture, entertainment etc. Rrual areas would vary quite a bit depending on the region. Northern France is mostly quite flat for instance, but the centre and south of France is quite mountainous. Wine production is an important French industry, and there are many well known regions given to wine growing, like Bourdeaux for example.
Food has always been very important to the French, and the 20s would be no exception. In most places, even today, it is still usual for shops etc, to be shut for two hours while people go to enjoy a long, lesiurely lunch. Even quite young children are given watered wine with their dinner to accustom them to it. In the 20s, even patients in hospital would be given wine with their meals.
Everyone shakes hands when they meet, it isn't something you only do when meeting someone for the first time like it is in the Uk for instance. Friends shake hands every time they meet. And when you go into a shop, you always say 'Bonjour' (good morning) to the shopkeeper. Going into a shop and just asking for what you want without saying 'Bonjour' first is considered rude.
Formally, men are always addressed as 'Monsieur'. A single women is 'Mademoiselle' and a married woman is 'Madame', however, women above a certain age (about forty I think) are always addressed as 'Madame' whether they are married or single.
Some things in 20s France were very similar to things in 20s America and the UK for instance, as regards fashion, music, dance, etc. In fact, the distinctive fashions of the 20s were inspired by the French fashion designer Coco Chanel.
In 'The Cambridge Illustrated History of France' Colin Jones writes:
French women still did not have the vote (they didn't get it until 1944).Radicals and Socialists were opposed to votes for women because they thought that women would vote for the pro-church parties. Women were not made legal majors until 1938 - prior to this date a wife needed her husband's permission for acquiring a passport for example. Because of the worry about the falling population, in 1920 the sale of contraceptives was prohibiited. In the same year the state threw its support behind the celebration of Mother's Day and introduced state medals for fertility (bronze for mothers of five children, silver for those with eight, gold for those with ten).
The eight-hour day was secured in 1919, but rates of adult male disease and mortality remaind significantly worse in France than in countries with a similar economic and social structure, and social insurance measures stil lagged well behind the rest of Europe. Real wages in 1918 were nearly a fifth lower than they had been in 1914, and though they jerked upwards during the 1920s, they had returned to 1914 levels by 1930. On the land, too, the situation was far from good. The peasants had suffered a high proportion of war deaths. The continuing trickle of a rural exodus towards the towns highlighted the difficulties of the agrarina economy, but also the relative weakness of the demand for industrial labour.
French society was riven with social tensions. Radical change of any kind seemed frought with difficultuies and the cards remained heavily stacked in the favour of the social elite and gthe business classes. Movements of political provocation and subversive rejection of bourgeois values prospered in intellectual circles. In the art world notable examples were the Dada movement, which began during the war, and the surrealist movement, which developed out of it in the 1920s. The yearning for a new kind of society toook many participants in these movements towards left-wing politics. Others drifted into the ranks of the extreme right.
Male wartime mortality had spurred an increase in the numbers of independent women, with unmarried and widowed middle-class women now entering the labour force in large numbers. Three years after the war, 42 percent of adult women were still in gainful employment, and they comprised two-fifths of the total labour force.
Having ones hair cut short was held to proclaim a new spirit of independence in women. The sexual overtones of short hair, short skirts, and flat chests were endlessly debated. Cloche hats - sometimes likened to soldier's helmets - bold cosmetics and costume jewellery completed the effect.
French cinema had enjoyed a golden age prior to World War I, and it retained much of its vitality in the inter-war years. Cinema, radio, and gramaphone records spread more widely the cultural fads of the Parisian elites. jazz, for example, became a national phenomenon rather than the passing craze of the Parisian nightclub circuit: a dancer and singer like Josephine Baker could become a national star.
The best place to set the bustling part of the story would be Paris, which was the centre of culture, entertainment etc. Rrual areas would vary quite a bit depending on the region. Northern France is mostly quite flat for instance, but the centre and south of France is quite mountainous. Wine production is an important French industry, and there are many well known regions given to wine growing, like Bourdeaux for example.
Food has always been very important to the French, and the 20s would be no exception. In most places, even today, it is still usual for shops etc, to be shut for two hours while people go to enjoy a long, lesiurely lunch. Even quite young children are given watered wine with their dinner to accustom them to it. In the 20s, even patients in hospital would be given wine with their meals.
Everyone shakes hands when they meet, it isn't something you only do when meeting someone for the first time like it is in the Uk for instance. Friends shake hands every time they meet. And when you go into a shop, you always say 'Bonjour' (good morning) to the shopkeeper. Going into a shop and just asking for what you want without saying 'Bonjour' first is considered rude.
Formally, men are always addressed as 'Monsieur'. A single women is 'Mademoiselle' and a married woman is 'Madame', however, women above a certain age (about forty I think) are always addressed as 'Madame' whether they are married or single.
Some things in 20s France were very similar to things in 20s America and the UK for instance, as regards fashion, music, dance, etc. In fact, the distinctive fashions of the 20s were inspired by the French fashion designer Coco Chanel.
In 'The Cambridge Illustrated History of France' Colin Jones writes:
French women still did not have the vote (they didn't get it until 1944).Radicals and Socialists were opposed to votes for women because they thought that women would vote for the pro-church parties. Women were not made legal majors until 1938 - prior to this date a wife needed her husband's permission for acquiring a passport for example. Because of the worry about the falling population, in 1920 the sale of contraceptives was prohibiited. In the same year the state threw its support behind the celebration of Mother's Day and introduced state medals for fertility (bronze for mothers of five children, silver for those with eight, gold for those with ten).
The eight-hour day was secured in 1919, but rates of adult male disease and mortality remaind significantly worse in France than in countries with a similar economic and social structure, and social insurance measures stil lagged well behind the rest of Europe. Real wages in 1918 were nearly a fifth lower than they had been in 1914, and though they jerked upwards during the 1920s, they had returned to 1914 levels by 1930. On the land, too, the situation was far from good. The peasants had suffered a high proportion of war deaths. The continuing trickle of a rural exodus towards the towns highlighted the difficulties of the agrarina economy, but also the relative weakness of the demand for industrial labour.
French society was riven with social tensions. Radical change of any kind seemed frought with difficultuies and the cards remained heavily stacked in the favour of the social elite and gthe business classes. Movements of political provocation and subversive rejection of bourgeois values prospered in intellectual circles. In the art world notable examples were the Dada movement, which began during the war, and the surrealist movement, which developed out of it in the 1920s. The yearning for a new kind of society toook many participants in these movements towards left-wing politics. Others drifted into the ranks of the extreme right.
Male wartime mortality had spurred an increase in the numbers of independent women, with unmarried and widowed middle-class women now entering the labour force in large numbers. Three years after the war, 42 percent of adult women were still in gainful employment, and they comprised two-fifths of the total labour force.
Having ones hair cut short was held to proclaim a new spirit of independence in women. The sexual overtones of short hair, short skirts, and flat chests were endlessly debated. Cloche hats - sometimes likened to soldier's helmets - bold cosmetics and costume jewellery completed the effect.
French cinema had enjoyed a golden age prior to World War I, and it retained much of its vitality in the inter-war years. Cinema, radio, and gramaphone records spread more widely the cultural fads of the Parisian elites. jazz, for example, became a national phenomenon rather than the passing craze of the Parisian nightclub circuit: a dancer and singer like Josephine Baker could become a national star.
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