Silly Little Country

France and Style

We are very lucky to have Andrew Potter over in France and watching the action, as privileged students protest to inhibit changes in the law which might make it easier for less privileged young people to get jobs.

He has some fascinating observations:

unlike Canadian kids at the protests, these ones weren’t wearing their best MEC gear and wrapping bandanas around their faces. Instead, they’d all got dressed up for the protest: girls in long brown skirts, boys in tweeds or tight asymmetrical jackets. And the finest collection of scarves the world has ever seen… it was like a protest organised by Jean Paul Gaulthier.He has some amusing pictures.

In another post he observes:

Dominic de Villepin is in control of the situation. He is refusing to back down from the employment reforms that have caused the crisis. Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy won’t get drawn into the debate with his political rival. His refusal to engage in any form of "lese-solidarite" with de Villepin has annoyed les journalistes, who have a clear interest in a deepening of la crise.

Alex Tabarrok is also in Paris.

As I arrived at the Bastille Metro a mass of students exited, marched across the 5 lane roundabout and sat down. Chaos ensued. Unfortunately for them the road was so wide they could manage a blockade only 2 to 3 students deep. This was not enough as angry young french men with jobs drove their mopeds through the crowd kicking the students along the way. Apparently the workers of the world are not united, at least not in France. Unable to maintain their ranks the protest fell apart.

Alex also offers an economic analysis of the issues at hand:

You cannot have it both ways; raise the cost of firing and you raise the cost of hiring. In my opinion, the Sorbonne students need a little less Foucault and a little more Bastiat.

Or perhaps the students know more economics than I credit them with. Under the current law it is costly to fire anyone but the effect on hiring is not symmetric. The workers least likely to be hired are those who are perceived, rightly or wrongly, as a risk. The fear of hiring effect falls not on the privileged students at the Sorbonne (trust me today's protesters were tres chic), but on young French North Africans whose unemployment rate exceeds 30 percent.

Thus, paradoxical as it may seem, today's protests by the Sorbonne elite are a cause of the riots of late last year.

But as he makes dead clear this is no major demonstration in favour of the downtrodden. It is the usual rent-seeking exercise.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 4:26 PM