France takes first place in avg. hours of sleep

By Ed Lasky

Why bother to wake up when there are few jobs and when a wage earner is taxed so heavily to support a welfare state? Look at France, where people with no need to rouse themselves sleep longer than any other group of people in the industrialized world.

David Gauthier-Villars reports in the Wall Street Journal:

When he won the presidential election two years ago, Nicolas Sarkozy urged the French to get up early and work more to earn more.

A study released Monday suggests they missed the wake-up call.

France is the industrialized country where people spend the longest periods sleeping, according to a series of surveys on social habits conducted by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development.

Once a statist culture prevails in a nation -- especially one where religion is downgraded as a source of eternal virtues -- it becomes very difficult to restore the old values.