The Future of the West Is France

20060319

     The most recent violent riots in France are a frightening vision of the problem that the slowly socializing and liberalizing Western world faces if it continues to follow the policies that it has almost universally embraced since the end of World War Two. At issue in the latest round of riots in France is whether or not young people have the right to government promised and union protected ‘jobs for life’.

     The issue is really very complex, but can be distilled down to a few simple facts: First, the unemployment among young Frenchmen- those aged 18-25- sits at a staggering 22%. Among the poor youth in the areas that saw the Muslim riots of last year, the number jumps as high as 50%. Second, these numbers are due in great part to the fact that there are such stringent government and union protections on most jobs that, once a young person is hired, it is impossible for that person to be fired, even when that person proves to be a substandard performer or incapable of doing the job. Third, even when unemployed, these young Frenchmen still receive government support that causes France to have one of the highest tax rates in the world.

     The riots are focused against a recent law that would allow French employers to fire anyone under the age of 26 without having to show cause, effectively ending the stranglehold of the government and union arbitration courts that prevent anyone in France from being fired. The government argues that this law would create more jobs because it would remove the fear of hiring a 22-year-old college graduate, only to discover that person is not capable of doing the expected work, and then being forced to employ that person for the next 30-40 years because the law prevents them from being fired.

     The problem is that the youth of France see the aforementioned guarantees as a birthright. They expect their social-liberal government to guarantee them jobs regardless of their own capabilities or performance. They expect healthcare, jobs, and pensions, whether they do anything to earn those things or not. Now that the system that they expect to be theirs is being threatened, they expect the right to riot and strike until the government lets them have their way. Worse, they never consider how any of these things is to be paid for or whom else these demands might affect.

     The rest of the Western world should watch the events unfolding in France with a great deal of concern because these riots are the future of their own continually expanding social programs. Even here in the US, the first signs of this very kind of mindset has been seen in the incredibly uninformed and negative reaction against the concept of Social Security reform, never mind the fact that Medicaid/care reform is so long overdue that to continue to fund the program to even support Americans currently enrolled could require as much as a 1-2% tax increase on the shrinking percentage of Americans who actually work for a living.

     The current riots in France are the proof positive of the long term failure of a social-liberal policy. Because social-liberalism takes away the motive to work hard to get ahead for oneself by promising constant external support and by taking away the consequences of failure, the modern people of social-liberal systems like France’s no longer feel any responsibility toward supporting themselves. Ultimately, this pattern will inevitably lead to economic and social collapse, and then who will these people blame?

DLH