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How many William Pfaff are over at the IHT? (4.00 / 3)
Since we are already talking about the IHT, there was another article about the French protest yesterday in that paper. The author is William Pfaff, and the article is here .

Now, William Pfaff has already written another article on this matter several days ago, deconstructed promptly by Jérôme. So one could wonder why does he needs to repeat himself so often. And the start of the article seems to be a repetition, complete with reused phrases (in bold):


Who's right in France?
William Pfaff

PARIS What is happening in the streets of French cities is in one sense deeply absurd. The object of the protests is withdrawal by the government of a modest law intended to improve employment chances for poorly qualified young people.

The measure is being attacked by its opponents as reinforcing the precariousness of the lives of those same young people. This is a dramatization in the great tradition of French political psychodrama.What is most interesting, however, has been the revelation of the economic and social anxiety of the French middle classes.

He then proceeds to investigate this "revelation".


....

The events of the past week in France have been a reaction to the threat of social descent and economic precariousness.

Saturday was for the French middle classes the counterpart of the car-burning late last year by the young of the poor immigrant suburbs. Both sent messages. The message of the suburbs - immigrant assimilation - was understood, although whether the public response will be adequate remains to be seen.

Oh dear, so the purpose of a street protest is to sent a message. What a discovery!

He then goes on to explain that the law "gives employers the right to offer beginners jobs with a two-year trial period, during which they can be fired without formal cause" and to say that


Never mind that a job with a two-year trial, possibly leading to permanent employment, is surely better than the succession of dead-end, short-term jobs available today. (Seventy percent of the jobs currently proposed to the young in France offer short, fixed-term work, sending people back onto the dole afterwards.)

Now, he does have a point there, maybe the only one that can be made for this law. There are companies that are quite fond of so called "stages". But it can be argued that the only thing  the CPE will do will be to erase the other 30% of jobs, as these companies will always prefer to hire interns if it can pay them less. Note also that he actually  agrees that the present situation is not all milk and honey and jobs for life for the french youth.


The usual foreign description of the French problem is that the nation and its political and economic elites are failing to confront the demands of the globalized economy, ... etc

So is he starting to have doubts about this description?


Actually, French youth unemployment is not what it is usually made out to be, since free baccalaureate- and university-level education keeps young people out of the job market much longer than in most countries. As a result, as The Financial Times reported last weekend, the official figures are misleading. The newspaper calculates that 7.8 percent of French under-25s are actually out of work, as compared with 7.4 percent in Britain and 6.5 percent in Germany.

Well, at least is a good thing that he started to read something about the things he talks about.


A larger explanation occurs to me, that France is the coal miner's canary of modern European society. France's rejection of the European Union constitutional treaty two years ago caused an international shock because the French rejected the view, all but universally held among European elites, that continuing expansion and market-liberalization are essential to the EU, indeed inevitable. This proved to be untrue, to the general relief of the European public.

I find it interesting how the referendum last year can be alternatively used to stab the "European elites" or to support the view that Europe is getting more protectionist and reactionary against the forces of the globalisation. Anyway, is the Gran Finale that really blew me off:


Similarly, it seems to me that the current unrest in France signals wider popular resistance in Europe to the most important element in the new model of market economics, its undermining of the place of the employee in the corporate order, deliberately rendering the life of the employee precarious.

The model's principal characteristic in the United States has been the transfer of wealth to stockholders and managers, and away from public interests (by tax cuts) and employees (through wage-depression and elimination of employee benefits).

In this perspective, what in France seems to be a sterile defense of an obsolete social and economic order might be interpreted as a premonitory appeal for a new but humane model to replace it. It could be Europe's opportunity.

No comment!

I read again his last article and I have to say that I am totally confused. Really,  they don't seem to be written by the same person.

Comments?

by Deni on Thu Mar 23rd, 2006 at 10:32:28 AM EST
Re: How many William Pfaff are over at the IHT? (none / 0)
As discussed here and at greater length by Jerome here.
by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Thu Mar 23rd, 2006 at 10:39:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: How many William Pfaff are over at the IHT? (none / 0)
We pretty much wrote the same story! We're all pretty surprised on the site by this new article, as you cna see on the various threads that discuss it...

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Thu Mar 23rd, 2006 at 10:45:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: How many William Pfaff are over at the IHT? (none / 1)
Good work for your first comment, Deni!
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Mar 23rd, 2006 at 11:45:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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