Comment du Jour

Come September--Strikes in France

France has returned from Summer vacances, and now it is back to work.
But before anyone gets too serious, let's have a national strike.

A million people turned out to protest the Sarkozy government's plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to quelle horreur 62. The reasons are simple. The state is broke, generous social benefits simply cannot be sustained, and the spending has to be curtailed.

So rail and metro services faced dispuptions, throngs of strikers clogged the streets of Paris, and the embattled gvernment faced a new crisis. With French unemployment at 9.6 percent, budget deficits rising, and the unions playing their usual political games, the country faces national malaise.

France's lesson is America's warning. Beaucoup benefits mean massive government spending, taxes and debt. With the USA unemployment rate at 9.6 percent, the same as France, and debt levels actually higher, we are in no position to lecture France. But perhaps we can learn from them.