Thursday, November 03, 2005

The social model at work in unemployment – I’ve only been lightly following the riots in France, but this statistic is eye-popping: “Overall unemployment in France is 9.8%, but for under-25 Frenchmen the figure is a stunning 23%. Oh well, at least they have "free health care."” Last year, France tried to artificially pump up employment by moving to a four-day workweek but employers simply shifted five days of work onto their employees. Businesses in much of Europe refuse to add workers because the cost of government-mandated benefits drive up labor costs beyond what the market will support.

Extra – From Publius Pundit: “The persistent joblessness, the inability to assimilate immigrants, the government control of every aspect of life and above all the lack of freedom are exactly what’s behind this spreading explosion.”

2 comments:

Bruce said...

Whatever happened to the promised stream of leftist celebrities and other assorted asshatted morons moving to Paris to escape iron clutches of the Bush cartel?

Anonymous said...

The same thing that happened to the budget surplus, Saddam's WMDs, and Bush's mandate.