Last week, students in France launched a massive protest across the country in opposition to a new law, which grants employers the ability to dismiss young hires within the first two years of employment.

The bill proposed by French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was conceived as a means to reduce unemployment among France’s younger population; in many cases unemployment for youngsters exceeds 20%. The French, long accustomed to cradle to grave government handouts, saw the measure as an affront to France’s cherished social welfare model.

Initially, these protests were limited to students, now it seems trade unionists across France have taken up the mantel of Karl Marx and joined the students in massive protests and crippling strikes. As The Phalanx predicted last week, the French government will most assuredly cave, as they always do. Mob rule is an accepted method of democratic change in entitlement minded France. The government, which has already called for “talks,” will soon back pedal entirely has De Villepin very much wants to be president of France (who knows why) and will not risk the ire of the French electorate.

If such a modest measure as this has no hope of passage, how will France ever adopt significant structural change to reverse its continued economic decline? The answer, quite simply, is it won’t. As long as the government ascends to will of mob mentality, the French state will remain a bastion for stagnation, high unemployment and a general lack of innovation.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-03-28-france_x.htm