Air France: A Mirror Image of France's Atrophied Economy

Fire of Liberty

Boris Johnson, who's a British MP, has a good piece in the Daily Telegraph(UK) about his most recent run-in with the folks at Air France. After observing the Gallic work habits of slothness and inefficiency, Johnson lays out a good argument on why France's economy is in such a chaotic state and how they'll continue to remain in the same shape if folks keep on raising hell in the streets about laws and measures that try to alleviate the situation. After reading the following, you'd think the folks in France would appreciate Villepin's gesture:

As anyone who has dealt with French baggage handlers can testify, the French devote less time to their work, when they work, than any other European country. They manage 39.1 hours per week, compared with 42.2 hours in Britain and 42.6 hours in Poland; and then there are the growing numbers of French who do not work at all.

The number of unemployed - the number of jobless people in France who might make more zealous bag handlers, who might show some gumption and get an innocent passenger on his plane - is now at a six-year high of 10.2 per cent of the work force.

Youth unemployment is at a terrifying 23 per cent and rises to 50 per cent in some suburbs; and yet there is almost no way of getting these people into jobs, because in France there is almost no way of getting the shiftless and idle out of their jobs, especially in the state sector.

In order to fire someone, French companies with more than 600 employees must go through legal procedures lasting 106 days. It costs French companies 2.6 times as much to fire a 35-year- old as it costs an English company; and of course there may be some people out there who are sometimes nervous about losing their jobs, and might wish that they had the kind of protections enjoyed in France.

But that is to miss the central economic reality, an understanding that was at the heart of the British labour market reforms of the 1980s, changes that have been very largely responsible for the 52 consecutive quarters of growth enjoyed by Britain and unemployment currently low by European standards.

The point is that if you make it easier to fire, you also make it easier to hire: and that is the way to get the economy moving. Anyone who cares about the future of the European economy - and it matters deeply to us, the fate of our leading trading partners - should get out to Paris and support de Villepin in a counter-demonstration.

Then again this is probably how things will remain in France especially after witnessing Chirac and Sarkozy's capitulation to the militant unions(Most in France are communist/hard-line socialists) and the rabble-rousing students. One can foresee that the French government will shy away from passing any meaningful legislation towards liberalizing their economy in the near future. Even Sarkozy, the presumed Presidential winner in 07, will have a hard time getting anything done with the economy because he has shown his hand and the labor unions know what it takes to make him do their bidding.