April 04, 2006
Protesting in favor of unemployment and low wages
It always fascinates me to watch people protest in favor of their own self destruction. It's like watching a guy sitting on the wrong side of a branch he is sawing off up near the top of a tree. He may get the branch trimmed but it is going to be a long way down.
We have two current examples of this kind of shallow short sided thinking in the French riots and the borderline anti-American protests in America. In our first case the French government is trying to reduce the obscene national unemployment rate of new workers by making it easier for French businesses to get rid of poor employees before they become institutionalized and unfireable (much like government and union workers in America). It was hoped that such an approach would make companies less timid about taking a chance on employing the rioters .... I mean young people. Those young unemployed rioters will have none of that. They have decided it is going to be all or nothing. It appears that nothing is on the way, nothing being no prospect of a job.
In America it's almost the opposite. Protesters here are demanding the right of illegal immigrants to remain in the US working at the whim of employers for depressed wages. Those American citizens demonstrating on behalf of this cheap disposable labor source are insuring that the poorest and least educated of Americans will be unemployable and if they do manage to find a job, that job will pay the bare minimum required by law.
It's a fine thing watching French protestors literally demand unemployment and Americans demand underpaid disposable labor. Even more interesting is that these two protest groups probably sympathize with each other cause. Ignorance of unintended consequences is a wonderful thing.
Posted by Sid at April 4, 2006 12:06 AM |
