paris burns while villepin fiddles with labor laws

France doesn’t want to compete in the global economy…no wait they do…well, they sorta do.

Astonishing fact: up til now, French businesses were not allowed to lay off any employee without a Danged Good Reason™. This is a fitting tribute to the nation which gave the world some of the greatest philosophers during the Age of Reason. But now a Villepin-backed law would allow French business owners to layoff the youngest workers, during the first two years of their employ.

This is excellent news if you’re a young French person. Generally the small business owners haven’t been willing to hire the youngsters, even if they desperately need the help, because if they do they’re stuck with them. Forever. Now business owners can give a young person a chance with less risk of being saddled permanently with lackluster employee. Hooray for yutes! Hooray for partial deregulation! *

So who’s doing all the protesting? Is it France’s older workers who are suddenly rendered less competative? Are the old farts lighting police cars and storefronts on fire because they are less attractive hires than the firable young set? If I were a middle-aged French worker I’d be T-O’d. Imagine a new business starts in France (an hitherto almost unthinkable proposition). Who will this new business prefer to hire? A bunch of old curmudgeons that they’ll be stuck with? Or will they prefer to staff a constantly cycling crop of the young and the layoffable? If you were an employer, would you want a workforce that could be taylored to match the fortunes of the company?

But no, wait, it’s not the curmudgeons doing the rioting. It’s the youths –the very ones who stand to gain an unfair advantage from all this hiring/firing– who are the arsonists. Go figure, if you can. Meanwhile, some young laborors may get arrested or injured. Hopefully that will mean their employers can replace them with somebody who isn’t bent on destroying company property.

* Partial deregulation is usually just as evil as the thing in its fully regulated state. This is no exception.