French student riots

The rioting in gay Paree was about employment protection.

France currently enjoys laws that protect the employee from being terminated. In essence the job is insured by the government. The problem for the employer: it becomes irrelevant if an employee is a slacker or go getter, the employer just has to deal with the issue.

Apparently France is attempting to reform this job protectionism. This is a protectionism incidentally highly favored by the French Left, the French Unions and apparently deluded students preparing to enter the job market.

Obviously, from an American point of view, these students are slicing their own economic throats for supporting such protectionism. Employers under the current laws are very wary of hiring unproven employees that may turn out to be duds and become stuck with them. The French Reforms allow an equal playing field for new hires by allowing employers more options.

Now I do understand that sudden change is or can be a harrowing experience when one thought he had a job for life. So here is the compromise the French government should employ (no pun intended): Dilute the protectionism rather than ending it. By this I mean look at the academic world. Professors enjoy a proving ground process called tenure. Once a professor is tenured it is extremely difficult to ditch them for other reasons other than gross misconduct.

Perhaps the French (and other European nations using the protectionist principle) should tenure employees. If a new hired employee is able to retain his job for a certain amount of years, then a mandated tenure review should be inaugurated. If the employee receives tenure – insure protection.

Thomas Sowell weighs in on this subject:

Why are students at the Sorbonne and other distinguished institutions out trashing the streets and attacking the police? Because they want privileges in the name of rights, and are too ignorant of economics to realize that those privileges cost them jobs.

...

The fact that many students can think only in terms of "rights," but not in terms of consequences, shows a major deficiency in their education. The right to a job is obviously not the same thing as a job. Otherwise there would not be a 23 percent unemployment rate among young French workers.