Kenders' Musings

Throughout much of last week, hundreds of thousands of students in France were angrily protesting.

They have been joined by the major French labor unions, which are threatening a general strike.

And what is this all about?

It is all about a new law in France that allows a company to fire a person under the age of 26, without cause, within two years of being hired.

Wow. Imagine that. You might get fired from your first job.

It's not working for France...the poor performance of the workers (who have no incentive to be good workers) is taking a toll on France's ability to be a Global competitor. So, the leaders over there decide it's ok to...OMG...FIRE these lazy performers and this sparks massive protests and work stoppages. It's a different place, France, and much of Europe for that matter.

As it happens, the whole point of the law was to encourage companies to hire young people. The unemployment rate among young people in France is 23 percent. And in many suburbs, it is double that. Meanwhile, French companies are understandably loath to hire 22-year-olds when they cannot fire them except "for cause," which under union rules means something like committing mass murder in the workplace.

What these massive demonstrations reveal is the narcissism, laziness and irresponsibility inculcated by socialist societies.

Enough generations of socialist policies have now passed for us to judge their effects. They are bleak. Socialism undermines the character of a nation and of its citizens. In simpler words, socialism makes people worse.

Socialism destroys people's natural desire to do BETTER. To be all they can be. It creates laziness and lax. There is NO incentive to anything except exist. How boring it that? Since when is maintaining employment a right? It's very foreign to Americans.

These young people in France really believe that they should be able to be hired at their tender ages and that a company must not be allowed to fire them from their first day at work (except "for cause," which, as we are learning in America, is increasingly difficult to establish). In America, most of us would call the French young people's attitudes "spoiled."

Socialism teaches its citizens to expect everything, even if they contribute nothing.

Socialism teaches its citizens that they have a plethora of rights and few corresponding obligations -- except to be taxed.

Yes they are VERY spoiled. But worse than that, they are living in a world where a job is an entitlement. This is bad policy for the entire nation. America cannot go down this route. People will not be innovative when there is no reward for it. People will not produce more products when there is no reward for that. AND these people don't care that they are taxed upwards of 50% of their income...to support "free healthcare" (which is far from free duh!) and they don't mind paying for their fellow countrymen to be lazy, to not work. What a progressive place France really is huh??

And that is why the citizens of less socialist -- and more religious -- America give more charity per capita and per income than do citizens of socialist countries. That is why Americans volunteer time for the needy so much more than citizens of socialist countries do. That is why citizens of conservative states in America give more charity than citizens of liberal states do. The more Left one identifies oneself on the political spectrum, the more that person is likely to believe that the state, not fellow citizens, should take care of the poor and the needy.

It's a political mindset. We are all entitled to have our opinions, be them left or right. Problem is when the opinions garner votes, and we tilt too far left, we will become France. A huge mess of high unemployment, a healthcare system lacking in resources and funds; a lack of an ability to defend itself so it's forced to kiss the stained asses of terrorist-loving states. Yes...this is France.

The socialist idea sounded altruistic to those who began it, and it sounds altruistic to the naive who believe in it today. In practice, however, it creates self-centered individuals and a narcissistic society. So while it may have begun as a way to help others, it has come to mean a way of evading responsibility for oneself and for others.

So true. France is going to have to change it's ways or fade into history as a "Once Great..."
There will be many more protests from the generation of lazy, selfish young people who will someday grow up; some of these kids might see socialism for what it is and try to make a change. There will be many protests. But the question will come down to this: Does France exist for the individual or for the nation as a whole? And the answer will not be socialism.

Here is what American youth get to look forward too...let's here it for capitalism!