‘If You Hire This Kid, We’ll Pay His Salary,’ Says France

Unemployment in France is at 23% for people under 25 (in Spain, it’s 52%, in Italy, 34%), and French President Francois Hollande has proposed a plan! He thinks government should pay 75% of new hires’ salaries if they are between 16 and 25. (“The government hopes to create 100,000 of these “contracts for the future” next year and another 50,000 in 2014. It has promised to continue paying its share of the employee’s salary for three years.”) The plan has to go through Parliament, but Hollande’s party is the majority, so it will likely pass!

I think this plan sounds GREAT (jobs for everyone), but economists and entrepreneurs say that it doesn’t address the “real” problem of EVERYTHING IS SO FUCKED, which will require economic reform and a restructure of the labor market. GOOD POINTS BOTH.

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