French Protests Over Youth Labor Law Spread to 150 Cities and Towns - New York Times

Do they even teach economics in France? Does a single one of these students understand anything about how businesses run? "Anticapitalism and self-management"? What a joke!

Let's compare numbers.
U.S.: capitalist free-market country. Unemployment rate? About 5%.
France: Socialist masquerading as a capitalist country. Unemployment rate? About 10%.

Why? Job security. The French want job security. Of course. Eveyone wants that. Americans want that badly. But I think we see something else. We recognize that there is uncertainty in life. That businesses don't exist to employ people. That the market isn't a constant. We understand, for the most part, that businesses grow and shrink, that jobs come and go. The important thing is that they have the ability to. This way, we keep a low unemployment rate, yet have highly productive businesses.

The French think businesses exist to employ people. Sorry, but that is wrong. Busniesses exist to produce. They need the flexibilty to change as the market changes. If they can't do this, they will hire less people. Machines are much easier to replace and shut down if there are laws agianst firing people. Get rid of the bad laws, and more people will be hired. Maybe you'll have to switch companies every once-in-a-while. What's better, ten different jobs or no job at all?

What is probably most disturbing is that, according to the Wall Street Journal, an economics student organized these protests. What kind of econ major is he? What do they teach in French universities? Do they study socialism in their econ classes? Don't they understand how the market works? You make it more costly to hire workers and fewer workers will be hired. It seems very expensive to hire workers in France, so few are hired. Basic economics. And this fool, Razzye Hammadi, says that he is "totally opposed in principle" to tinkering with France's labor laws. They are broken!!! With unemployment double that of the country where "evil" market forces create a "precarious" situation for workers, I don't understand the reasoning. Once again, what's better, a "precarious" job which you only hold for a few months, or no job at all? Maybe someday someone can go to France and teach them what has made the U.S. the most powerful and richest nation ever to exist.