Comments on: Letter from France #1: France and the Future of Employment

By: Kirk

Kirk — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 14:34:22 +0000

I don’t agree with Pfaff entirely. The CEO salary issue, which is often touted,
represents only a handful of CEOs. While it is blatant greed, it isn’t the norm,
if you consider that more than three-fourths of businesses are small
businesses.

The issue of shareholder value, however, is different. Yes, it’s a short-term
strategy, but the shareholders are, most often (indirectly) middle-class
workers (via their pension funds). So the wealth is going back to the workers,
just in a different way.

What is more of an issue is that of globalization. The students demonstrating
in France would certainly support any initiative to increase the standard of
living in third-world countries. What they don’t realize is that is what is
happening, and they are against it. By being able to compete in many ways,
third-world countries are increasing their standard of living, while developed
nations are most likely going to see a decline in compensation (at least until
the third world becomes the second world and is no longer as competitive).
You can see this in farm subsidies, which are huge in France, which prevent
third-world farmers from competing. Remove the subsidies, however, and the
farmers protest. (And they are more violent than the students.)

We in the west have been living off the backs of the poor in this world for a
long time – the balance is shifting.

Finally, another cause of decreasing wages is the fact that consumers want to
buy things cheaper. In the US, WalMart has led to the demise of smaller
retailers, and many manufacturers. But the people who shop there are the
very people who are losing jobs or suffering wage decreases. They don’t
realize that it’s not in their best interest to buy cheap…

By: ncm

ncm — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 11:57:36 +0000

There is some truth to what you say – certainly about political posturing
before the next presidential elections, about the French tax code needing
reform to encourage innovation and grow small businesses and about fear of
changing the worker benefits of the current French system…which, yes, is
unsustainable in the long term with the current globalization trend. On the
other hand, an interesting slant on the current troubles and it’s deeper cause
can be found in this International Herald Tribune opinion piece by William
Pfaff:

Over the long term there will have to be some compromise solution found
between the European social/business model and the US’s rampant free
enterprise/debt society model.

cheers,

ncm (Paris)

By: Kirk

Kirk — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 17:21:15 +0000

The problem is that the youngsters who are demonstrating are quite out of
touch with reality. They don’t know what it’s like to have to work hard, and I
suspect that many of them come from families that have lived with many
entitlements over the year. It’s a generational thing, and this generation is
probably the first – as in other countries, such as the US – that won’t be better
off than their parents. (The first in recent memory, at least.)

The underlying problem is that the sclerotic French political system cannot deal
with change very well, and demonstrating is almost a rite of passage for
teenagers.

By: technotheory

technotheory — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 16:32:11 +0000

For a while I’ve been looking for a personal yet strong and factual response to what’s been going in France over the last month. Thank you, Kirk.

It disheartens me to see that the competitive spirit has dissipated amongst so much of the younger generation. These strikes, which are making it to the cover photos of major US newspapers, could have longterm effects far more deleterious than the initial chaos being reported now. I’m no expert on French politics, but I hope that the younger generation wakes up to the type of global competition taking place so that they can help to make France more business friendly and thus keeping the country economically viable in the coming decades.