Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

tiredoflife

Morning all. Horrific news again from France. I cant get my head round it. I keep seeing the picture on twitter of a, what appears to be, toddler under a sheet with a dolly, its unbearable. I'm not ashamed to say I cried. What sort of world are we bringing our children into. So much hatred. How do we explain to them that these people have no regard for our values. No child regardless of race, colour, religion should be caught up in this.

vivatifosi

I've not looked at twitter. Last night I was watching the news and hardened journalists were saying not to look on twitter. It must have been horrific.

tiredoflife

It was grim. I'm probably over sensitive as I have a 2 year old daughter with a dolly that looks exactly the same as the one in the picture.
I get so down by seeing these awful events, it consumes me for days.

michaels

vivatifosi wrote: »

DQWD:

I have been fairly vocal on the minimum wage debates about the consequences of pricing the least productive out of the labour market.

This is what I think happens in France where firing is difficult and expensive and the result is an underclass who are unemployed and see no prospect of this changing - basically in France unemployment has been above 10% for a long time whereas it has fallen to 5% in the UK.

And this unemployed group is not spread at random across the population but is self reinforcing in deprived areas with low expectations and low ambition which also tend to be high immigration areas where the issue of low skills is being perpetuated across generations.

Of course it is a trade off, the same laws mean for those employed conditions are good and expensive labour means productivity is high and thus gdp per head is high so the 'haves' do better but at the expense of social dislocation.

The UK minimum wage increases may cause some of the same problems whilst solving others - the current system whereby employing someone is cheap for the employer and the govt subsidizes through tax credits a minimum quality of life means that unemployment is low but is obviously expensive for tax payers and in a way subsidizes employers. However if the alternative is the french system of productive employees only and and an unemployed underclass ripe for radicalisation then perhaps we need to take a more holistic view of what is best?

silvercar

And this unemployed group is not spread at random across the population but is self reinforcing in deprived areas with low expectations and low ambition which also tend to be high immigration areas where the issue of low skills is being perpetuated across generations.

We have similar areas in Britain, though they are not immigrant areas. They don't seem to get radicalised.

That isn't a criticism of immigrants, but more a thought that there must be something more to radicalising than low income/ prospects. Most immigrants in this country are hard working, so what is different between those that come here and those that settle in France? Why are the French radicalisers (is that a word?) more effective than in this country?

vivatifosi

michaels wrote: »

The UK minimum wage increases may cause some of the same problems whilst solving others - the current system whereby employing someone is cheap for the employer and the govt subsidizes through tax credits a minimum quality of life means that unemployment is low but is obviously expensive for tax payers and in a way subsidizes employers. However if the alternative is the french system of productive employees only and and an unemployed underclass ripe for radicalisation then perhaps we need to take a more holistic view of what is best?

That's an interesting question. I worked for a Franco-American company for many years and know that even bright, educated, well connected people can have trouble getting another job in France. Imo it is more because of the employment laws being so stringent rather than the pay... I think minimum wage level has been less of an issue and my sense is that we have greater workplace mobility. It is easier to get a job here.

It's sobering to think that Charlie Hebdo was only in Jan 2015. Since then there have been 6 different terrorist attacks in France (kosher supermarket, Air Products factory, foiled train attack, the multiple attacks on Paris, the killing of the police officer and his wife, now Nice). That's a scary frequency.

Pyxis

Hello!




What's wonderful?

michaels

Spam is wonderful.....

oldandhappy

michaels wrote: »

Spam is wonderful.....

I could never understand how SPAM ever tasted of anything but leave an unpleasant taste in your mouth:p

Pyxis

Oh dear!




Are you sure, though?

Looks more like a nice piece of salami to me.