Unlile the fiizzle of the anti-war protests, the anti-jobs protests in France really did get "tens of thousands" of participants. In my earlierposts on the subject I put the cause down to selfishness, but I'm beginning to think that I may have been too kind and that ignorance, stupidity and the like are the real causes. Everyone, even the student protestors, agree that the job prospects for graduates and other young people are dire, and most economists and external analysts blame the rigid French labour laws for this, yet the students are protesting the attempt to liberalise the laws.
It is true that there are faults on the government side too. The Torygraph points out that:
In loosening France's rigid labour code, the government could have played its hand more skilfully.
First, the Bill was railroaded through parliament in a vain attempt to pre-empt mass demonstrations by students and workers. Second, its wording, giving companies the right to sack young workers without justification, is unnecessarily provocative.
However the fault of the government - an inability to communicate - is far less than the moronic agitators who have decided to try and protest the law. I am extremely unclear what alternative they would prefer, although I'd bet it is something like "make the government pay employers to take on young people", but whatever it is, it is absolutely certain that it
won't work
is unaffordable anyway
Tim W has a link to another Torygraph item which explains just how broken the current system is:
At about 23 per cent, youth unemployment in France is twice the national average, and one of the highest in Europe. Young people take eight to 11 years to secure their first full-time staff contract.
He rehtorically asks if "idiots" is too strong a word and answers himself that no it isn't. I'd go further and say that in fact calling these protestors idiots is an insult to genuine idiots and morons. It is a sign of how little grasp of economics (and one might argue reallity) that these protestors have that they are unable to correlate cause with effect and note that the fact it is next to impossible to fire someone in France (at least not without a big golden parachute) is a major reason why no employer will take the risk to employ someone marginal and why, consequently, French economic growth is in the toilet.
Anecdotally I can add that the "tens of thousands" of fonctionnaires and millions of regulations are additional severe disincentives to investment in France, but the fact that employees have very little incentive to work hard is probably the worst issue. Although it has been partially repealed, the 35-hour week attempted to make it illegal to work more than 35 hours per week, 48 weeks per year and while the law was generally flouted by all and sundry - even the unions started complaining after a while - the message it sent was clear: Work hard and you get punished. Given that message why would any sane employer take on a new employee unless he absolutely had to?
I despise l'Escroc and Vile
Pin