If We Really WERE More Like Western Europe

The left in this country pines away at the thought that we should be more like our western European "Allies" (you know, the guys that sold Saddam all that military equipment during the UN Sanction period and is selling Iran all the capability to build nuclear weapons, not to mention reaping millions in the oil-for-food program while Iraqi children starved). They tell us that the Euro's are much "more civilized", "more enlightened", "more progressive" than us neanderthals here in middle-class America.

Well the truth is that they are definitely more unemployed; and the situation is only going to get worse. Reuters yesterday reported that “at least one million people marched in French cities and unions staged a one-day national strike.”

Unions and student groups rounded up the million-slacker march to a three-million-slacker march.

Now this is what’s going on. One or three million people, in a country with 10% general and 23% youth unemployment, protest that hiring of “young” workers (in French parlance, you’re a young worker until you’re 26) would be made easier by allowing employers to let go of deadwood under 26 within the first two years of employment.

“You can’t treat people like slaves. Giving all the power to the bosses is going too far,” howled one Gregoire de Oliviera, “a 21-year-old student protesting in Paris,” at a Reuters correspondent.

Which is an interesting if involuntary testimony to the French mindset. Because slaves rarely were “let go,” with or without explanation. In fact, the bane of slavery consisted in taking away people’s freedoms, one of which was the freedom to leave employment. Slaveholders, to the contrary, did what they could to keep their uncompensated workforce in place, without accounting for productivity.

Which is exactly what those educated students appear to be striking for. A world where there is no pressure to develop the maturity that comes with realizing one’s place in the competitive global marketplace. A world where productivity and ambition count for nothing compared to maintaining the status quo.

On an Internet message board, a German student in Grenoble, France, seemed understanding. French youth was protesting injustice, fighting against the old people’s tendency to protect what’s theirs: “It’s the highly educated young people on the streets. These are certainly not a burden to society but its future.”

All right. But the future of a culture whose educated youth proclaims to be unwilling to compete despite its age-related advantages of low labor cost, less sick and downtime, more flexibility and an up-to-date-education to me looks like a rainy day in November.

And in a global economy, what entreprenuar wouldn't prefer to enjoy a sunny day in Bombay instead?

The inimitable Larry Kudlow had this to say about the recent labor trouble in France: “In France, you see, companies don’t grow because it’s too costly to hire while it’s against the law to fire. Hence, since they rarely add jobs, French businesses under-perform, under-produce, and under-employ. Think of it: It’s awfully tough to increase output without a growing workforce to produce it. […]

“Indeed, at the heart of the French problem is a statist-run socialist economy that is massively overtaxed and overregulated. France’s public government sector, for instance, accounts for more than 50 percent of GDP. In other words, private business in France is in the minority.

Added to this, France’s top personal tax rate is 48 percent, with a VAT of nearly 20 percent. So that means French laborers face a combined 68 percent tax rate on consumption and investment. No wonder France has created less than 3 million jobs over the past twenty years, compared to 31 million in the United States. Economic growth in ‘cowboy capitalist’ America has exceeded that of France’s worker paradise by nearly 50 percent.”

If the left is so enamored with the european model, they should just follow Johnny Depp across the ocean and participate instead of trying to import it here and shove it down our throats. I'll take 12 million illegal aliens who want to work hard and participate in the evil, capitalistic-American dream any time.