I've never been one to bash the French for the mere sport of it. In fact, on my previous blog, I wrote a post called "The French Are Not Cowards" in which I reminded people of two facts: first, a French soldier named Marquis de Lafayette fought alongside George Washington at Valley Forge and second, if a French fleet hadn't driven the British navy from Chesapeake Bay during the War for Independence, we'd hardly be the home of the free.
Granted, that was a long time ago. But more than a hundred years after the War for Independence, the people of France sent us a gift—the Statue of Liberty, which according to the National Park Service, they gave to us "in recognition of the friendship established during the American Revolution." We didn't send it back, so I can only assume that our relationship with them couldn't have been all that bad.
Fast forward another hundred years to the modern era, and well…France is a mess. They've created a welfare state, and as is always the case with welfare states, they create dependents who moan when said welfare state threatens to shut off the cash flow. A couple of days ago, more than a million young adults took to the streets in more than 250 protests all across the country in France.
They were protesting because France passed a law that allows employers to fire employees under 26 without cause, which obviously shatters the notion that so many in France are accustomed to—a guaranteed job for life.
One 18 year-old Paris protestor named Maxime Ourly, a literature student, said this: "Young people are sacrificed in the name of the economy, and we are here to fight against it. We don’t know what will happen in the future, and we want to control our futures."
If you want to control your future Maxime, then control it. Stop depending upon the government to give you security. If you knew anything about history, then you'd know that socialism never sustains itself. It collapses from within. The economy that you show such distain for is your lifeblood. You have a vested interest in it doing well.
An opinion writer named David Rennie made this observation about the riots on The Daily Telegraph website in London: "The students want to turn back the clock to the France of their parents, and grandparents—to some golden age, when jobs were for life and the state took care of all ills. This is militant, car-burning nostalgia."
Nostalgia for socialism is sad, but when one generation after another knows nothing else, it is understandable. When the protest turns violent however, it goes from sad to criminal—as was the case during the most recent protests/riots in which five police officers were injured.
Maybe a little capitalism would be in order the next time these rioters try such a thing. No better time than the present to take advantage of the new law by firing every employee who skips work to protest the fact that the government is no longer going to guarantee them a job.
