Posted on 03/30/2006 5:05:03 AM PST by billorites
THE SIGHT OF MILLIONS of Frenchmen, predominantly young, demonstrating in deep sympathy and solidarity with themselves, is one that will cause amusement and satisfaction on the English side of the Channel. Everyone enjoys the troubles of his neighbours. And at least our public service strikers just stay away from work, and spend the day peacefully performing the rites of their religion, DIY, and not making a terrible nuisance of themselves. In fact, many of them are probably less of a public nuisance if they stay at home than if they go to work.
Of course, demonstrating in huge numbers is what the French do from time to time. We should never forget that to break a shop window for the good of humanity is one of the greatest pleasures known to Man. Trying to topple governments by shouting insults is also great fun.
We like to think of France as having a deplorably statist and centrally controlled economy, while the French like to think of Britain as a land of savage liberalism (in French parlance, the two words are as inseparable as Siamese twins), divided unequally between plutocrats and beggars. In fact, the two countries differ far less than is often supposed. While it is true that there remain some differences — despite Gordon Brown’s best efforts, the British labour market is still more flexible than the French — the similarities grow daily more striking (as it were).
The ultimate cause of the demonstrations and strikes in the two countries is the same: the State has made promises that it is increasingly unable to keep. It has pursued policies that were bound in the end to produce not just cracks but fissures that could no longer be papered over. The main difference is that while Dominque de Villepin is tentatively dragging France, albeit kicking and screaming, and with every likelihood of failure, in the right direction, Mr Brown is still stuck on the royal road to disaster, for which the British people, but not of course Mr Brown, will ultimately pay very dearly. When the crash comes, the social dislocation in Britain will make French disaffection seem positively genteel.
Whether they know it or not, the people on the streets in France were demonstrating to keep the youth of the banlieues — who recently so amused the world for an entire fortnight with their arsonist antics — exactly where they are, namely hopeless, unemployed and feeling betrayed. For unless the French labour market is liberalised, they will never find employment and therefore integration into French society. You have only to speak to a few small businessmen or artisans in France — the petits bourgeois so vehemently despised by the snobbish intellectuals — to find out why this should be so. The French labour regulations make employment of untried persons completely uneconomic for them.
It is often pointed out that French unemployment under the age of 26 is the highest in Europe, running at about 25 per cent. Moreover, in the banlieues it is 50 per cent. These banlieues are homes to millions of people, disproportionately young. It follows — does it not? — that there must be a considerable section of the young population in which unemployment is less than a quarter, actually much less. One would hardly have to be de Tocqueville to guess in which section of the young population the unemployment was less: the section from which the demonstrators, or at least their leaders and agents provocateurs, are drawn. In an increasingly desperate situation, the demonstrators are so afraid of the future that they want to hang on to their privileges and job security by hook or by crook, even if it means that the youth of the banlieues will eventually have to be kept in order by the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité, the much-feared riot police, the CRS. There is nothing idealistic or generous about the demonstrators, just as there wasn’t in 1968.
There are of course deeper but intangible problems that are even more difficult to solve than the inflexibility of the labour market. If you speak to small businessmen in France, they will tell you that the young in any case do not want to do the kind of work of which there is no shortage. At a time of such high unemployment, artisans have no one willing to be trained by them, even if they are willing to take the risk by taking them on. This is even though such artisans are so overwhelmed by work that a carpenter, for example, is booked up for more than a year in advance and can charge almost anything he likes.
We have no reason to condescend to the French, however, for the British are in fundamentally the same boat, with a few extra problems of our own. The vast and fraudulent expansion of tertiary education, which leaves students indebted for their own useless education, is merely a means by which the Government disguises youth unemployment and keeps young people off the streets. Contrary to government propaganda, unemployment is not low in Britain: but it is now called sickness.
Our economy is corruptly creating public service jobs — endless co-ordinators of facilitation and facilitators of co-ordination — but not many in the private sector, the only true measure of economic health and growth. Any fool can create public sector jobs, and Mr Brown has done so: but not even the most brilliant man can make them economically productive in the long term.
The British economy has all the brilliance of a fish rotting by moonlight, and eventually — to change the metaphor slightly — the bill will come in. And since so large a proportion of the population is now dependent, wholly or partly, on the State, the bill will be a large one, not only in financial terms but in social terms as well. We will need our very own CRS.
It can’t be said either that we won’t deserve what we get. It is we, after all, who have listened to the urgings of demagogic confidence tricksters, and believed their promises of irreconcilable goods. We should have paid attention instead to the wise words of Benjamin Franklin that apply as much to economics as to politics. He who gives up freedom for security, he said, will end up with neither.
bttt
It's becoming the same thing here. Trying to find a good carpenter is getting hard. Craftsmen are in short supply and that's a real shame. Oh, I'm not talking about someone who can put a couple of boards together, I'm talking about someone who is a craftsman, the same with ironwork and some of the other dying crafts. Yes, you can still find some, but they are now so expensive you really can't afford them. You used to be able to run over to your neighbor and get him to do something for a couple of beers and a hamburger, now you have to practically mortgage your house or substitute some cheap, mass produced piece of crap instead.
My first father-in-law was a master craftsman. He helped me redo an enclosed walk-way between the garage and house into a sitting room in our first home. He was a perfectionist in all he did. A little impatient with me but that was understandable. I learned enough from him through this project and others to do my own renovation work later. And I, too, am somewhat of a perfectionist. While the marriage didn't last, I'll always be grateful to him for what he taught me. He's long gone now.
In his early days he was a bootlegger in Chicago. And he wasn't mob connected. That should give you some idea of him.
"You used to be able to run over to your neighbor and get him to do something for a couple of beers and a hamburger," Darn those neighbors who kept the price of artisinship down. :)
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"
I believe that was actually Karl Marx.
Knowing the patent falsehoods they teach in the academy, "back to class" is the last place they should go to learn some economics.
This just about sums it up perfectly.
Perhaps those craftsmen could no longer afford to do their work for only beers and a burger?
Seriously, I agree that there is beauty in that type of craftmenship, but you don't see a lot of blacksmiths or glassblowers still around do you? Some trades--perhaps sadly--have been pushed aside because of cheaper and more efficient ways of manufacture.
Of course, some people aren't interested in cheap and efficient. but it appears that this is a case where the majority rules. We can build 3000 sq. foot houses for $100,000 dollars, which makes it more affordable for new homeowners. The walls are paper thin, the wood trim is pressed sawdust, and the exterior is made of vinyl, but the owner has a 3000 sq. foot house.
It's the same with the "Martha Stewart" collection of furniture from KMart. It's it's made of wood veneer, "fiberboard," and colored cardboard. Someone can purchase it with less than $75.00 can assemble it with a screwdriver. How many could afford the same piece of furniture made from oak or birch, and built by a craftsman?
"It has escaped the notice of the dupes of socialism ..."
Escaped the dupes, maybe , but not the ones who will be in charge under a dictatorship. They don't care. Power is the goal.
That's true, but these things will be gone in no time at all. On the other hand, those things which have been put together by craftsmen will still be around in a hundred years. We've become too much of a disposable society and are losing sight of what has value. Yes, you can buy colored cardboard for $75.00 and have it now, or you can save and pay $300.00 and have something for the ages. The problem is, those skills are being lost and they are being lost due to lack of appreciation and demand. At one time, every farmer knew how to build a fence that would make today's stone masons weep. What do we do when those skills are lost completely?
I live in Georgia and had difficulty finding good tradesmen to work on our 22 year old home. We contracted with Lowe's for a kitchen renovation and it took them 7 months to get the work done. They ordered the wrong door, and could not seem to get the last 5% of the work done for 3/4 months. It was very frustrating. We did find some good painters, but when we called them back for more work, they would not return our calls.
People in our area say that there are not enough tradesmen available. We decided to build a new retirement home and designed it for LOW maintenance.
I believe the lack of tradesmen is a product of our poor education system that does a poor job of training workers for skilled trades. Also, the culture of dependency brought about by that socialist LBJ's "Great Society" allows many to avoid employment.
It will be interesting to see if welfare reform will eventually change this situation. In Georgia, the percentage of persons on welfare is now 10% of what it was prior to welfare reform.
Another point. The Latinos that work on construction crews all over the state are eager to work. Our contractor tells us that without the Latinos, some work would be much harder to get done.
btw, aren't all of the people on welfare women?
I think education can train more trades persons, but they continue to focus all students on academic courses, and many kids drop out of school. My employer tried to hire several welders and other skilled tradesmen and had to bring in contract workers from outside the area because there were not enough skilled in those trades in the area.
Welfare (formerly AFDC) did involve payments to mothers, but is also created a culture of dependency that passed on to the children. I handle discrimination cases as a part of my job, and see this mindset is still pervasive. The idea is that the Government or my employer owes it to ME.
Education was my gig for a long time. Most skilled tradespeople have been trained is apprentices by mastercraftmen. I think the culture of dependancy is also enhanced by politicians who create government jobs for those who feel entitled. Those people still do not understand how the economy works.
That is why we should increase LEGAL immigration. I am totally against amnisty, and I'm not all that interested in Guest Worker. However, if you want to come to America and become a citizen and you do it the right way, we should welcome them.
*shrug* We have a minimum wage law. What better way to freeze out our own yutes from starter yobs?
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