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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little tired of watching pampered French students protest and burn cars because they might have to work. They are in a tizzy over a new law that is intended to encourage the hiring of people under 26 by allowing employers to dismiss them without cause within two years.
Big deal, at the age of 27 they still get job security. They need to quit whining and get to work. This is not to say I don't have some sympathy for France preserving its system. In the U.S., we love to talk about family values, but give workers virtually no time off to actually be with their familes. And then we wonder why we have a 50-percent divorce rate.
Nevertheless, the new rule in France seems wise and reasonable. Why get a job for life before you prove yourself? Heck, even college professors in America have to earn tenure before they get to coast.
6 Comments:
This is the type of extremism that gives us liberals a bad name; just like the budget busting war mongering gay hating neocons give all conservatives a bad name.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/29/2006 9:13 AM
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!!!!!!!
Wayne - I've followed this in the French press, and I have to say that this new labor law amounts to nothing less than age discrimination. It provides an "out" for employers to fire employees without warning and even potentially without cause, simply because they are young, thus it allows employers to take advantage of them. As I understand the situation, French youth are protesting the possibility of being fired without cause, with no legal recourse. There is already a growing attitude of hopelessness among young people in France about career opportunities, and this new law only adds to it.
I am rather surprised by your position on this, and take exception to your tone. I'm not sure you understand this issue. Have you looked at the French press too? What factors led you to your conclusion?
Me again - coupla things I forgot to add. 1) I agree that burning cars/damaging property goes too far and is wrong. I do not defend vandalism.
2) I am surprised at what appears to be a lack of compassion on your part for the young people who stand to be out of a job without warning, with no way to support themselves. Why is it wrong for that to happen to you, but okay if it possibly happens to others? (regardless of the reason) You know from experience that suddenly losing your means of subsistence in your early or mid 20s is no less devastating than losing it at 27 or 30. Please reconsider, Wayne.
