The French are rioting...

...again. Apart from love and art, the French now seem to have found a new national recreation in rioting. In fact it seems to be so innate a cultural trait, that even massive social barriers couldn't prevent this habit from passing on to the immigrant enclaves. Let us set that aside for a moment and think about the latest predicament that has brought the French into the streets in hoardes, destroying the property and livelihoods of... the French.

So the immigrants rioted because they didn't have jobs. Something like 40% of the youth in that community don't have jobs. These aren't all first generation immigrants mind you, many of their parents and perhaps grandparents fled Africa in hope of finding a comfortable life, or perhaps just a more comfortable one. They did, but paid for it by being locked into those well planned suburbs, La Cité.

Young non-immigrant French don't have too many jobs either. 10% of the population at large has no jobs. They aren't going hungry ofcourse, but the government has been reneging on its commitments to balance its budget to pay for their well being. The reason for so much unemployment is the rigid labour market, which almost locks employers into life-long contracts with employees.

This prevents employers from firing people when they don't need them, say for instance during an economic downturn, or when productivity booms and labour has to be shifted to alternative occupations often not in the same firm or industry. This puts a strain on resources, and firms choose to either write-off their existing employees as a regulatory cost, or do other drastic things like move their production overseas. What they don't do is hire more people. Often this means that they don't hire more young people, because older people are difficult if not impossible to fire.

In this instance, perhaps France can look to India for some lessons. The infamous droves of educated-unemployed who infested their parents' homes and the popular cinema right from the 1970s through the mid 1990s were suffering from the same plight that the French hoardes face today. Little or no economic growth, seeing other world economies surge ahead, seeing the evil capitalist as the cause of one's troubles, seeing a socialist government as the only cure. Atleast on the last count they both get it wrong.

If the government of France does not take the steps it is taking now, it will perpetuate two trends in French business. The first is the bonsaisation of French industry, by which I mean the trend towards having more small firms which don't have to face as many government regulations. This will prevent new French firms from growing, leaving the old established firms in 'power' so to speak. The second is the continuation of a large group of unemployed youth, ready and willing to destroy everyone elses property. To paraphrase Karl Marx, 'Youth of France Unite! You have nothing to lose, not even your welfare cheques!'.

The French as a nation are a puzzle, but then I think of Maharashtra and our own local luminaries who give the French administration's distilled myopic nationalism a good run for its money. If you went, 'Huh!, how did our great state come into the picture!', I don't know. Head works in strange ways sometimes. I discovered the France-Maharashtra link in a wikiconversation^TM with Nikhil Bhat once, perhaps if I decide to start keeping promises I'll get around to writing a proper post on that too.