After several weeks of chaos in the form of rioting, guns shots and street fires, the French Republic is returning to normal. To commemorate this return to normalcy, the French are celebrating with one of their favorite past times…a strike. On Monday, French rail workers are set to strike. Anyone familiar with France is quite familiar with the fact that strikes are a way of life in France.

France, as we at the Phalanx have noted on several occasions, is a nation that has indoctrinated itself with the spirit of entitlement. The French populace have come to expect certain handouts from their government. Because of this, France has become a model for mediocrity, its economy is a shambles, its industries and people are unproductive, its government is inept and its foreign policy is ineffective. In every way France is a failed state, clinging to international organizations like the EU and the UN as a means to enhance its faltering influence. Because of the entitlement attitude of its citizens, the French have become particularly sensitive to even the suggestion that their welfare state is in danger. French rail workers are nervous that the French national railway, SNCF, will be privatized.

For those who don’t know, privatization is a four letter word in France and even the suggestion of privatization is cause for French workers to take to the streets. Privatization invariably leads to greater efficiency, which means less reliance on a host of unproductive and unfire-able workers, so its of no surprise that the French detest the notion of privatization. What’s interesting in this case, however, is the fact that no one in the French government is suggesting that SNCF will be privatized. The French Transport Minister, Dominique Perben, has assured the workers that privatization is not in the cards. Nonetheless, workers plan to strike money just for the heck of it and in France, that’s more than sufficient, small wonder the French economy is facing double digit unemployment and stagnant growth.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/11/20/france.strike.ap/index.html