France: Labor Law Gone! Now What?
The Labor Law riots in France have brought forward a crucial problem in today's modern world. The competitiveness of today's job market requires us to think of laws such as the French law that allows employers to sack an employee in the first two years of employment with no reason; Although this is a French problem, it is soon to be a model for the rest of the western world. One that will require a solution before it spreads and hampers western ability to aid the underdeveloped world.
When I was a teenager (which was not so long ago), my parents use to tell me that the world I live in is much harder than theirs as it is more competitve. During my parents' time if a person had a highschool degree, he was in an ok shape. If he had an undergraduate degree, he was on his way to stardom. Today if you have an undergraduate degree, you are on your way to stardom... in the dead-end job market. Increasingly one must have at least a master's degree if not a Phd. This fact goes a long way in explaining France's situation in which 22% of the youth work force and 40% of the immigrant work force are unemployed: employers want the best for their money and if they cannot fire no one, they hesitate to hire.
The French government, aware of the aforementioned problem, came with the labor law that would encourage employers to take the risk and hire young people. It has no choice - with the rising youth unemployment it would have to support these youth with welfare funds, funds it cannot take from the EU. Already France is under a lot of criticism for the amount of funds it attracts in subsidies from the EU for its huge agricultural sector. On the other hand, employers are likely to take advantage of this law in order to cut down on pension payments through a huge employee trunover once every two years. A viable solution would have to balance these two problems of youth unemployment and employers' exploitation.
I do not have the answer, but I am sure you are now asking yourself: that's bad news, ok - but what does it have to do with international relations or the Middle East? The connection is that the problem faced by France will soon be a problem for the rest of the Western world. That problem will only increase as more and more refugees from the underdeveloped world will migrate to the west, increasing the competition. As competition increases, the wealthy nations ability to help the underdeveloped world will decrease due to welfare payments; and that is something we must all think about as either good, as this may be the start of a balance between the developed and underdeveloped world, or bad as the western world will not be able to asist the underdeveloped world. My money's on bad.
When I was a teenager (which was not so long ago), my parents use to tell me that the world I live in is much harder than theirs as it is more competitve. During my parents' time if a person had a highschool degree, he was in an ok shape. If he had an undergraduate degree, he was on his way to stardom. Today if you have an undergraduate degree, you are on your way to stardom... in the dead-end job market. Increasingly one must have at least a master's degree if not a Phd. This fact goes a long way in explaining France's situation in which 22% of the youth work force and 40% of the immigrant work force are unemployed: employers want the best for their money and if they cannot fire no one, they hesitate to hire.
The French government, aware of the aforementioned problem, came with the labor law that would encourage employers to take the risk and hire young people. It has no choice - with the rising youth unemployment it would have to support these youth with welfare funds, funds it cannot take from the EU. Already France is under a lot of criticism for the amount of funds it attracts in subsidies from the EU for its huge agricultural sector. On the other hand, employers are likely to take advantage of this law in order to cut down on pension payments through a huge employee trunover once every two years. A viable solution would have to balance these two problems of youth unemployment and employers' exploitation.
I do not have the answer, but I am sure you are now asking yourself: that's bad news, ok - but what does it have to do with international relations or the Middle East? The connection is that the problem faced by France will soon be a problem for the rest of the Western world. That problem will only increase as more and more refugees from the underdeveloped world will migrate to the west, increasing the competition. As competition increases, the wealthy nations ability to help the underdeveloped world will decrease due to welfare payments; and that is something we must all think about as either good, as this may be the start of a balance between the developed and underdeveloped world, or bad as the western world will not be able to asist the underdeveloped world. My money's on bad.
posted by The Middle East News Addict at 5:29 PM
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