While French youths are rioting over a proposal that would actually help them get work, U.S. college graduates are about to enter a hot job market. Could it be, asks Investor’s Business Daily (IBD), that the French system is a failure?
An anti-market, welfare state has not served France or any other nation for that matter well. The French economy has grown a paltry 1.6 per cent a year since 2001. That’s stagnation, says IBD.
Being unencumbered by the grip of cold, unfeeling capitalism, the French have been able to fabricate rights, among them the lifetime right to a job. As a result, firing incompetents and under-performers in France is nearly impossible.
That restriction, of course, puts French companies at a disadvantage, says IBD:
Consequently:
Give credit to French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin for proposing a change in the law that would let employers fire workers who are younger than 26 without reason during the first two years of their employment. That would break the logjam and give employers an incentive to hire the young, says IBD.
Source: Editorial, American Advantage, Investor’s Business Daily, March 21, 2006.
For text (subscription required): http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=20&artnum=1&issue=20060321
For more on International: http://www.ncpa.org/pi/internat/intdex1.html
FMF Policy Bulletin/11 April 2006
