How You Gonna Keep'Em Down On The Farm After They've Seen Paree?

I'm not a big fan of France.  It's the only place I've had a gun shoved in my stomach and I had to leave my daughter there when she, for some reason, decided to go to school in Rennes.  Her in the rearview mirror just about broke my heart.  It worked out though.  She doesn't like France either.

But I really don't dislike France.  I dislike the business envrironment.  Put more correctly, I dislike the lack of a business environment.  In my 25 plus year career I worked for four multi-nationals that had operations in France.  And how many made money?  Zero.  Nobody.

So why were we there?  Beats me but we were and we poured money into the stupid country because France has some pretty tough laws on bankruptcy and capital requirements which I used to understand but not anymore.  All I know is I wrote, and got rejected, a lot of capital requests in my time and most of them had to do with France.  (A note to future capital request writers--a country manager thinks he/she has a god given right to the parent companies capital.  The parent company CEO thinks otherwise.  Tell the country manager that they will get the capital if and when 1) the country manager admits, in writing, that the company is on the verge of bankruptcy, 2) there is no alternative to capital and 3) the whole thing is so screwed up that there is no short term or medium term hope for a turnaround.  The country manager will think long and hard before signing that.  Unless they are French.) 

But what is it about France?  Well, let's look at the last two riots.  The first one was disaffected Muslim youth doing what they can for the auto industry by burning cars.  They are dissatisfied because they have no jobs.  And they are right.  Go in any of the French companies I worked with and they are lily white and male.  Except for the secretaries, excuse me, administrative assistants.  If your name is Mommar, forget it.

The second riot is, according to the papers, youth rebelling against a law, not passed yet, that would allow companies to fire anyone under the age of 26 with less than two years tenure.  Makes your second review a bit of a nail biter. 

First, let's look at the 'youth' that are protesting the new law, or new proposed law.  Most are university students and they are never going to work anyway.  At least not in a 'for profit' institution.  In France you go to university to be a lawyer, doctor, diplomat, or engineer but you don't go to work in business.  Oh, there are business schools but those students aren't rioting.  And most university students look old enough (because they are) to be your father or way older brother.  If you doubt this take a stroll through the Sorbonne on your next trip and look around.

The other rioting group is unions.  If not actually rioting they are supporting the demonstrations because THEY have jobs.  And they don't want any laws that would endanger those current jobs.  The key phrase here is 'current jobs', not future jobs or job creation. 

French unemployment is 9.6% versus 4.6% in the US.  And French youth unemployment is north of 20% which means a lot of kids out there ready and willing to burn cars.

So what's the point?  The point is that capital and jobs are not attracted to a country where 1) you have a law saying you can't fire someone, 2) capital and jobs are not attracted to a country where the universities turn out anti-capital graduates, 3) capital and jobs are not attracted to a country where the unions only care about themselves and not their children, and 4) capital and jobs are not attracted to a country where you can not get a positive return on that capital. 

A demonstration against a law that allows a company to fire somebody certainly does make that demonstrator feel righteous.  But what is really cruel is a country where 1 out of 10 workers is unemployed and 1 out of 5 youth workers is out of a job because companies can't fire someone. 

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