France Just Doesn't Get it---Firing is OK!

Today's Republican included this column by William F. Buckley about the strikers in France. Like the author, I have been amazed by the naivete and belief that laws allowing employers to fire people are such a sore subject in France.

Buckley first states the problem: more than 30% of the French are inactive. Not looking, not working, just inactive. In the US, firing is easy...but so is finding a new job. So you lose your dishwasher's job, you find another gig flipping burgers. Not a big increase in pay, a few weeks of fear, but you're back working soon enough.

In France, one of the student leaders protesting said he had no interest in economic flexibility--nor did he care that the current French system with 9.6 % unemployment is hampered by restrictive laws against flexible hiring. The vilified French government is trying, with this new law, to give employers a little room to hire/fire as they wish.

But in France, all this means is that it's time for another strike. Too bad they just don't get it.