All financial institutions to be run by the federal government.

[Avinash_Tyagi]

HappySqurriel said:

Avinash_Tyagi said:

HappySqurriel said:

Unemployment rates do very little to tell the whole picture on employment ...

In 2006 France's participation rate was (roughly) 70% while the United State's participation rate was (approximately) 75%, which means that (unless there has been a dramatic shift in participation rates) the US probably still has higher employment that France even with a higher unemployment rate.

That's only assuming that those who aren't participating actually want to work, for all we know Squirrel those could be stay at home mothers and fathers who don't want to work, remember the social support provided in europe is better than in the US, so they may feel no need to work, and instead may prefer to take care of their children, what we do know is that of those who are actually seeking work, France and europe currently have a lower percentage unable to find work. That kind of disrupts the argument that stronger social services results in some horrible economic condition.

Part of the reason your choice of France stuck out is it is used as a case study for the dangers of having a high minimum wage. France's participation rate for people above a certain age (I think it is 25 or 30, but I could be wrong) is actually fairly similar to countries like Canada but they have had an (amazingly) low participation rate for youth workers. One of the assumptions is that a lot of "bad" jobs that pay minimum wage and employ young people have been eliminated because of the high minimum wage; and because few of their friends have jobs, and most of their friends continue to live off of their parents incomes, there is a theory that this low participation rate is caused because the youth worker doesn't see a need to work.

Basically ...

The decision to increase the minimum wage created high unemplyment for the youth workers, expectations about the working and lifestyle habits of young workers changed, and because of these new expectations the youth workers don't see any need to seek out work and therefore the participation rate among them has dropped.

Thing is like you yourself are pointing out these are youth workers who are living off their families, first off its not like they would b making big salaries anyways nor is it like they are dependent on getting a job, so there's not a huge loss from this if they aren't participating in the workforce, so some pimply teen doesn't get a job flipping burgers after school, I don't think the economy is hinging on them.