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Posted by Tyler Cowen on April 10, 2006 at 08:59 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink

Comments

Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it. The young people of France will not be fired from jobs, even when the economy collapses to the point when every Frenchman who has a job is fired.

Posted by: triticale at Apr 10, 2006 9:54:39 AM

Aw come on Tyler, I liked this a lot. The wacky French have scrapped a law which probably should have been applied to a broader class of employees. It reinforces the notion that they just do not get it. It is good to wake up and see the world has some constants.

Posted by: drtaxsacto at Apr 10, 2006 9:59:21 AM

Here is the replacement:

"The president of the republic has decided to replace article 8 of the equal opportunities law with measures to help disadvantaged young people find work...

...The new measures include increased financial incentives to employers to hire people under 26 who face the most difficulties in getting access to the labour market..."

AKA money for jobs

Posted by: Mr. Econotarian at Apr 10, 2006 10:03:36 AM

How dare the French succumb to the will of the people? Don't they realize what democratic leadership is all about?

Posted by: neil at Apr 10, 2006 10:39:54 AM

Quote from Neil: "How dare the French succumb to the will of the people? Don't they realize what democratic leadership is all about?"

I think they just prooved they do know: Unprincipled and total allegiance to the mob.

Posted by: Keith at Apr 10, 2006 11:41:30 AM

This largely proves that Misses is right in saying that government is bad not due to evil legilators but because the will of the people is largely irrational. It is unfortunate but democracy, especialy France's brand, is a far far cry from freedom and liberty. If the electorate does not respect the live's of others than democracy is useless except for it being a vehicle to propagate the narrow interests of others.

Posted by: John Pertz at Apr 10, 2006 12:39:53 PM

Well, Keith, since those French people are actually live in France, I think the French government is right to give their opinions more weight than yours. I know, it's crazy, but I think there's a hint of truth in it.

Posted by: neil at Apr 10, 2006 12:48:25 PM

Ah, good! More French investment money for US businesses. God knows you'd have to be nuts to invest in France.

Posted by: Robert Speirs at Apr 10, 2006 1:10:03 PM

Neil says:
"Well, Keith, since those French people are actually live in France, I think the French government is right to give their opinions more weight than yours. I know, it's crazy, but I think there's a hint of truth in it."

This is a horendous point to try and make for so many reasons. What you are essentialy saying is that whatever the group decides is ethicaly correct.Even with American opinions of the French economy put aside, you are still misguided. Have you ever read James Madison? You do realize that majorities can harm minority groups within a democracy? Therefore pure democracy is an unethical form of government. In this case the majority have decided that the minority, French business owners, have extremely limited property rights. Which begs the question why does France not move towards full on state socialism? The government has such a heavy say in business affairs that it becomes very difficult to call France a market economy anymore. This way France can have full employment again because they can pay people to dig ditches and push dirt back and forth. As it is I wonder what percentage you would consider full employment in France nowadays, does eight percent seem reasonable or maybe even higher?

Posted by: John Pertz at Apr 10, 2006 1:57:42 PM

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."

H. L. Mencken

Posted by: Noah Yetter at Apr 10, 2006 3:37:46 PM

The day that I went to the Louvre, the French painting section was closed.
With a youth unemployment rate over 20%, they don't have enough staff to
keep the entire museum open.

Posted by: Pat L at Apr 10, 2006 4:19:34 PM

What's the over / under on the French under 30 unemployment rate in 5 years?

Posted by: Jason Ligon at Apr 10, 2006 5:49:36 PM

I find it very hard to understand the positive outcome of having this law passed(if it did). What exactly will the benefits be for firms to fire workers that are 26yrs and younger without giving reason for the first two years? Won't this just be a burden for companies to fire experienced/trained employees and then having to retrain new ones? Training is very time consuming and it takes away from productivity with a greater risk of error to those products or services that the company has to offer. The proposed new law says its to make it easier for firms to fire workers under the age of 26 since they won't have to give reason, but when they go to pursue a new job what exactly is he or she supposed to tell the new employer? How will the new employer know if he or she was fired because they couldn't perform up to par, or they were fired just for the heck of it? I fail to see what good could of come out of all this, just seems more of a hassle if you ask me.

Posted by: ddang at Apr 10, 2006 6:39:27 PM

ddang, the positive outcome is based on simple economic logic.
If firms know that it will be difficult to fire bad employees then they just won't hire any employees. If you make it easier for firms to fire employees that don't work out, then they will respond by hiring more employees to begin with.

So this law would result in more young people in France being hired, which would reduce the very high youth unemployment rate. It would help both the young employees (at least the ones who are good employees) and the firms.

Being fired without a cause given and making it harder to get a new job is not as bad a fate as never being hired in the first place.

Posted by: BillWallace at Apr 10, 2006 9:16:44 PM

Robert Speirs writes:

"Ah, good! More French investment money for US businesses. God knows you'd have to be nuts to invest in France."

Caution: do not get your investment advice from comments sections of blogs

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5EFCHI&t=2y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=%5Eftse,%5EGSPC,%5EIXIC,%5EDJI

The reason why the youth unemployment rate is so much higher than the overall unemployment rate, btw, is because the labour force participation rate is so much lower. In Germany, the youth unemployment rate is lower than the overall unemployment rate, and I suspect nobody think that this is because the youth employment regulations are very liberal.

Posted by: dsquared at Apr 11, 2006 6:33:43 AM

Germany has an apprenticeship program, where youths can take temporary job contracts way below those set by the unions for non-youth. Thus the low youth unemployment rate.

Before 1967, the French unemployment rate was below 2%...same for Germany.

Now its close to 10% for both countries.

Posted by: Mr. Econotarian at Apr 11, 2006 9:33:54 PM

The proposed law was flawed. Good points on why were made by previous posters. Seems to me that the high taxes on labor to pay for lavish social benefits are a much more significant problem as they affect every worker. Younger workers are less skilled and experienced, so naturally they provide a smaller net marginal benefit to employers given the tax wedge on labor.

Posted by: Abdul-Rahman Muaranah at Apr 13, 2006 12:44:33 AM

As a worker in the US economy, I benefit from at-will employment. I do specialised technical work for cellular providers, and am constrained from travelling. Whenever there is a cellular infrastructure project in my market, I am hired for the duration of the project and then let go. If the companies were not free to fire me, they would structure their project staffing in such a way as to not need to hire me, and I would be consistantly unemployed, or else underemployed in some other line of work.

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