France: Give Us Economic Ruin, or Give Us Death!

Protests broke out across all of France today, thanks to some new legislation that will make it easier for unions to fire younger workers. Some of the protests turned violent. Cars were burned, streets were barricaded, and somewhere around 500,000 people took part in the protests.

From CNN.com:

Saturday's mass protests were among the largest of this week's demonstrations -- including Thursday's marches by tens of thousands -- which have partially closed or shut down two-thirds of the nation's universities. There was also violence at Thursday's protests, and police retaliated with tear gas and rubber pellets, AP said.

Saturday's protests reached every corner of France, AP reported, with organizers citing 160 marches from the small provincial town of Rochefort in the southwest to the major city of Lyon in the southeast.

One quarter of France's youth is unemployed. This is because of their heavily legislated, unionized, and collectivist economy. Their job market is a joke. More legislation will not help the situation. What the people of France needs to do, and what they will surely not do, is remove all the collectivist legislation, remove all the unions, and remove all the unemployment benefits.

The citizens of France are totally addicted to their gift economy. Another CNN article said:

In Marseille, extreme leftist youths climbed the facade of City Hall, replacing a French flag with a banner reading "anticapitalism." Police used tear gas to disperse them, making several arrests.

Oh the sweet, sweet irony. Students who hate capitalism protest with banners on the top of City Hall, and are quickly assaulted and arrested by the same government that they are demanding take more "big brother" measures to protect them!

The irony continues:

"Villepin is trying to destroy France for his own political gain," said David Caruso, 42, an employee of the state-run electric company, festooned with union stickers. "The (plan) may create jobs but it will destroy them again by 2007."

More delectable irony. An employee of a state-run electric company, loaded with union stickers, is accusing Villepin, a lawmaker, of trying to destroy France. While he may be right, it is for the wrong reasons. He is the pot calling the kettle black.

Clearly it is government that leads to social and economic instability, and it is unions that cause unemployment. If the citizens of France continue to demand more government handouts and protections, they will eventually suck their own economy dry. The evidence is all around them. What will it take for them to see cause and effect? Or are they simply too addicted to their socialist system?