Average monthly wages for telephone "agents" in the region are only €1,400 but this hardly deters applicants, says Ms See during a tour of the centre, which employs 420 people. "Some of my staff used to work in the local leather factories, others in engineering companies. They are all thirsty to learn, because work is rare."

And why is work rare?

Because capital should not be taxed, thus labor is. Thus companies will invest in capital-intensive activities rather than labor-intensive ones, and once that habit kicks in (as in France), it creates a vicious, and self-sustaining circle.

In addition, companies will start looking for less constraining labor laws elsewhere, and the threat of delocalisation (even if not actually implemented - the pressure works even if offshoring does not happen) is enough to get a slow unravelling of labor laws and a transfer of social taxes form companies to workers or to taxpayers (mostly the same people anyway).

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes