French Riots
(probably best to start at bottom and work up as the most recent posts are at the top and assume info at the bottom was read)
Posted 3/24/06
3/24/06 Washington Post
The French government is finally taking steps to loosen up the country's archaic labor laws and
allow employers to more freely hire and fire younger workers. As Alan Greenspan said:
It turned out that with greater freedom to fire, the risks
of hiring declined.
Other steps to reduce the chronically high French youth unemployment would be to eliminate minimum wage laws, public housing, and other welfare programs. Needless to say, these modest reforms are being met with mass public protests, strikes, and rioting.
Under existing law, it is impossible to fire even the most incompetent workers without huge financial liabilities for companies. College students, other young people and unions say the new law discriminates against the young by denying them the job security that older workers have.
If this is true, 'discrimination against young people' is occurring, then how come in the United States, where employers can generally fire workers at will (exceptions = unions), we have a per capita income 1/3rd higher than that of France and about 2.5x lower unemployment rate?
You know, often time on this website I attack and blame governments for the various ills they have injected into society and label those in government as criminals, thieves, etc..., which is all, of course, very true. But, in the end, Government can only take as much as 'we the people' let them. The ultimately responsibility for good governance lies in the people themselves. How much will they put up with? How much of their freedom will they allow those in government to rob them of?
In France, the answer is, apparently, quite a lot:
Even as Ethuin, the bike rental shop owner, surveyed the damage along his block Thursday afternoon, he couldn't bring himself to criticize the young people whose demonstration brought the violence to his doorstep.
"They have no jobs," he said. "It's not their fault."
I bet most of these 'youths' don't care one way or the other about what is going on. They are bored, apathetic, and looking to have some fun. They are that way in large part for the same reasons, which they rioted earlier this year. Added to 'French Riots'
Posted 11/25/05
Added to 'French Riots'
French MP blames riots on Rapper
11/24/05 BBC
A French MP [Francois Grosdidier] has publicly accused rappers of fuelling the country's recent riots with their songs.
It comes a day after 200 politicians backed his petition calling for legal action against seven rap musicians and bands it alleges have incited racism.
He told France-Info: "When people hear this all day long and when these words swirl round in their heads, it is no surprise that they then see red as soon as they walk past policemen or simply people who are different from them."
Monsieur R, real name Richard Makela, already faces a separate lawsuit for "outrage to social decency" over the song FranSSe, brought by another conservative MP and to be heard in February.
Four members of the rap group Sniper were acquitted earlier this year in Rouen, northern France, in a case brought by the Interior Ministry over a song it alleged incited attacks on the police.
Government, not understanding that it is causing the problems, blindly looks for a scapegoat. Like a wounded bull, government attempting to fix blame for its own shortcomings is most dangerous. I posted this because I've been meaning to 'excerpt' something I wrote regarding African American culture, as it relates to welfare, in 'Welfare, History, Results, and Reform' and this is the perfect opportunity:
Culture and Welfare (posted 11/25/05)
Here is an excerpt of the excerpt :) :
In a similar sense, it seems a stretch to blame the Hip-Hop / rap / gangster rap / inner city culture for the rising incarceration rates and out-of-wedlock pregnancies of African Americans. Kool Herc, father of Hip-Hop, debuted in 1973 and, although he was influenced by earlier figures (244), this time frame was after the familial changes had commenced. This music may have originated from the changing culture, or developed independently. Most likely, this style emerged as a combination of culture and natural musical progression. It is hard to believe 'gangster rap' could have evolved without gangsters, or songs about 'the projects', guns and drugs become so popular if they weren't based in reality. For example, Biggie Smalls's lyric, "I see some ladies tonight that should be having my baby, baby", might not have been composed if out-of-wedlock births weren't rampant in the inner city public housing units. If the rise in crime rates and other social changes were triggered, directly or indirectly, by these means-tested anti-poverty programs (see objection 9 for more detail), then we can assume any arising cultural changes played, at most, a secondary or amplifying role. After Welfare Reform we see progress in many areas (crime, out-of-wedlock births, poverty) without the demise of music or culture. In fact, this music and culture must have some universal aesthetic qualities because nowadays the largest fan base is found outside of the inner cities, in suburbia (I'll admit I'm an 'old school' rap fan :) ). Some of the other populations we will examine, (Appalachia, Indian reservations etc..) are smaller, more isolated, and are in different settings (rural vs. urban). These factors may have made the development of cultural changes large enough to effect mainstream society more difficult.
11/18/05
11/16/05 Cato Institute Some more useful info backing up my contention in 'French Riots':
American liberals often look fondly to the European welfare state as a model for U.S. social policy. A typical low-income family of four has much of its rent subsidized by the French government and can receive more than $1,200 a month in various government benefits. The unemployed receive more. There is a universal national health care system and generous retirement benefits.
Yet, despite all this, we now know much of France's Muslim community lives in areas overcome with crime, poverty and unemployment. And in no small measure the blame can be attributed to France's prized welfare system. For, while French welfare has made poverty more bearable, it has done little to promote the ability of people to move up the economic ladder, improve their lives and see a better future. It is a society in which the poor are given much, but own little and are offered few opportunities for self-betterment, a society locked in social and economic immobility.
French unemployment has hovered around 10 percent for years, but the unemployment rate for the rioting young people is well above 20 percent and in some immigrant neighborhoods tops 60 percent. Overall economic growth is less than half that of the United States.
Also, a good analogy to New Orleans at the end.
Posted 11/13/05
Liberal Illusions In Flames / The riots in France put the apologist industry into overtime
11/13/05 Pittsburgh Post Gazette
This gives liberals an excuse to blame the rioting in France -- which has finally died down after two weeks -- on the standard liberal villains, poverty and racism.
But if racism is a cause of the rioting, poverty isn't. As Theodore Dalrymple noted in a prescient article in the City Journal three years ago ("The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris"), those whom the media choose to describe as "French youths" have cell phones, cars, boom boxes, gold chains around their necks. "They enjoy a far higher standard of living than they would in the countries of their parents' or grandparents' origin, even if they labored there 14 hours a day."
The economic part of the problem is a lack of social mobility, compounded by idleness. An idle mind is indeed the devil's playground.
Since the lack of social mobility is a product of the welfare state, the standard liberal "solutions" -- appeasement, coupled with great gobs of taxpayer money -- are unlikely to be effective.
There is no social mobility in France because the economy is stagnant. Unemployment is high. If French scientists have to emigrate to find work, what chance do those with few job skills have of grabbing a rung on the shrinking corporate ladder, much less of climbing it.
For the children of immigrants to have the same opportunities in France they do in the United States, taxes must be cut, regulations slashed, the minimum wage reduced, trade restrictions eased, labor unions weakened. But no politician in France would dare propose such remedies. <.>
Toleration of intolerance isn't sophistication, it's suicide. Work, not welfare, is the key to social integration. Making excuses for violence begets more violence.
Overall, a good article that describes the French Rioting pretty similarly to how I've described it in 'French Riots'. Although, I sort of disagree with the portion focusing on religion - the 'M-word' as this author says it. Added to 'French Riots'.
Posted 11/10/05
Rage of French Youth is a fight for recognition / Spreading Rampage in Country's Slums Is Rooted in Alienation and Abiding Government Neglect
11/8/05 Washington Post Is anyone else sick of reading articles like this one? Government neglect? Alienation? If it is the fault of government it is probably for opposite reasons. My guess is that these Muslim slums are the recipients of large amounts of government aid (welfare). Unemployment is estimated to be as high as 40-50% among young Muslim poor in these French slums. High minimum wages doubtlessly price them out of the job market. A job market where it is exceedingly difficult to fire people (due to overbearing and onerous labor laws), thus employers are reluctant to hire:
(from a previous 5/10/05 post [dead link]) In France, the company must show that layoffs have a financial basis, said Lowell Turner, a professor of international and comparative labor at Cornell University.
Poor public schools and French socialism keep these folks uneducated and unmotivated. In short, conditions and causes are probably similar to the ones I have outlined throughout this site that effect our own inner city slums, Appalachia, and Indian Reservations. Now, do I have proof of this? Not at all. I am just speculating, but I would be very surprised if it were not true.
Several of the older youths fingered pockets bulging with plastic packets of hashish for sale or trade. As they read local newspaper accounts of their previous night's exploits, they began discussing Saturday night's plans with more of an air of boredom than a commitment to a cause.
"We don't have the American dream here," said Rezzoug, as he surveyed the clusters of young men.
How can this be? The media has been telling us that Muslims hate the US and that President Bush's foreign policies have just inflamed this hatred more. After all, France actively opposed and lobbied against the war in Iraq. Yet their own population speaks of the 'American dream'?
Muslims more integrated in US than France
11/8/05 AFP Arab and Muslim immigrants in the US generally identify themselves as Americans and integrate with relative ease into a society that prides itself on social mobility and has more tolerance for cultural and religious differences, Haddad said.
Arab Americans and Muslims are better educated and have a higher income than the national average, said Edina Lekovic, communications director for the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
She cautioned against painting the riots as a religious issue rather than the result of economic and political disenfranchisement.
Well, this 'expert' is right that it is not a religious issue, it is an economic issue, but the solution is probably the opposite of whatever economic problems she thinks are occurring. Political disenfranchisement is not an issue because political disenfranchisement only exists with economic disenfranchisement (with rare exception).
The real parallel to the French riots is the African-American race riots of the 1960s and following the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles, said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute.
I agree with Zogby here, although I'm sure, again, that I have opposite views on the causes and solutions.
However, what is unique about the French experience is that government not only causes the problem, but then makes it doubly worse by refusing to allow its citizens to defend themselves or their property from the result of the failed government policies. In France it is illegal to own a gun.
French Police Arrest 250 as Arson Grows
11/5/05 Associated Press
In quiet Acheres, on the edge of the St. Germain forest west of Paris, arsonists burned a nursery school, where part of the roof caved in, and about a dozen cars in four attacks that the mayor said seemed "perfectly organized."
Children's photos clung to the blackened walls, and melted plastic toys littered the floor.
Residents gathered at the school gate demanded that the army be deployed or suggested that
citizens band together to protect their neighborhoods. Mayor Alain Outreman tried to cool
tempers.
"We are not going to start militias," he said. "You would have to be everywhere."
The police cannot be everywhere, but the people can! The government is not the people! This is precisely the point I had been trying to make in 'Guns and Crime'. When push comes to shove you cannot count on Government for protection. The best protection against criminals is that which you construct for yourself. Does anyone think these punk kids would keep burning cars if they were getting shotgun blasts fired over their heads? Protection of property is the key to liberty. When government fails in the only duty for which is exists then it must be abolished or the law must be taken into the hands of righteous citizens.