The fabled promises of socialism are failing in France as unions and students took to the streets this week. The protests were organized in response to a mild capitalistic reform, the “first-employment” contract (CPE), but the size and demeanor of the protests signals an overall unhappiness with the socioeconomic situation in France.
Depending upon who you ask, the organizers or the French officials, somewhere between one and three million people took part in rallies across the country. According to various news reports, the vast majority of protest chants and banners were not directed at the job-contract law, but at France’s governing officials.
You may have seen the live coverage of the Paris rally where police used large water hoses and tear gas against several hundred youths who threw bottles and Molotov-cocktail petrol bombs. According to National Police Chief Michel Gaudin, police made 787 arrests across France on Tuesday; 488 of those arrests occurred in Paris. The demonstrations brought large portions of public transport to a halt and even closed the Eiffel Tower for the day.
These protests did further damage to France’s anemic economy. Over the past 20 years, France has managed to create less than three million jobs. The capitalistic economic engine of the United States has produced 31 million new jobs that same period of time. The only economic sector in France that has steadily created jobs is France’s public government sector. It accounts for more than 50 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
France’s poor economic performance is further reflected in its per capita income. The United States’ now exceeds that of France by nearly 40 percent. According to a 2004 study done by a Swedish think tank, Timbro, if France were a state in the United States, it would be the fifth-poorest, ahead only of Mississippi, West Virginia, Arkansas and Montana, even trailing Louisiana.
France’s overall unemployment rate lingers around 10 percent. The younger generation faces dire employment circumstances. After being promised their entire lives they would have life-long employment after college, 23 percent of those between 18 and 26 are jobless. There is little opportunity for poor immigrants to make a better life for themselves. In some of the immigrant-laden suburbs, the unemployment rate is nearly 50 percent.
Besides placing an enormous tax-burden on employers and workers, the French government ties the hands of businesses with oppressive regulations. French law makes it nearly impossible for employers to fire unproductive employees. These regulations make employers hesitant to hire people, especially young, unproven workers.
The proposed reform that spurred all the uproar, known as the “first-labor contract” would simply give employers the ability to fire workers who are under the age of 26 during the first two years of employment without cause. This change was proposed by the prime minister in an effort to lower the high unemployment rate among France’s youth. Those of us in the land of capitalism recognize this sort of employment as an at-will contract. Employers shouldn’t be forced to hire someone for life. Leave lifetime appointments for judges.
Despite socialism’s failures, the French citizenry is still rejecting free-market reforms. Nearly two-thirds of the French people oppose the first-employment contract, according to French opinion polls. An extensive survey of citizens in 22 countries showed France was alone in disagreeing with the premise that the best economic model is “the free enterprise system and free market economy.”
The results of the poll conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland are astounding. Only 36 percent of French respondents replied yes when asked if the free-enterprise system and free market economy was the best economic model. Other European countries were much more supportive of the free-market with 59 percent in Italy, 65 percent in Germany and 66 percent in Great Britain answering in the affirmative. Surprisingly, the communist state of China topped the United States in its support for free enterprise, with 74 percent compared to 71 percent in the United States.
The nanny state in France has created a citizenry with an amazing sense of entitlement and little work ethic.
“There is only one way to reduce unemployment in France,” said French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy to the New York Times. “You have to explain to the French people that they have to work harder.”
The uproar over the first-employment contract vividly shows that the French government will never be able to enact the reforms needed to fix its economy until the French citizenry comes to the realization that there is no such thing as a “socialist paradise.”
 
Jason is a second year law student. Contact him at [email protected]