The author dismantles a recurring historical claim that Léon Blum's left-wing government weakened France by implementing the 40-hour work week, showing instead that French rearmament was actually a substantial success by 1940. The piece traces how this myth originated with Vichy propaganda and persists today in arguments against labor protections and AI regulation.

• French military spending tripled from 1935 to 1939 (12.8 billion to 93.7 billion francs), and by early 1940 France and Britain combined were outproducing Germany in warplane manufacturing.
• The 40-hour week blame originated as Vichy propaganda under Pétain, who scapegoated labor reforms for military failure to shift responsibility from incompetent officers to the left and Jews.
• Modern versions of this myth are being recycled in contemporary debates—a recent Substack essay uses it to argue against AI regulation restrictions.