Tenure on Steroids

When reading about the troubles confronting the duplicitous French leaders Jacques Chirac and Dominique de Villepin, t's hard not to indulge in schadenfreude (to use a word coined by France's age old adversaries).

My particular favorite is the young people rioting in the streets over a "reform" that would allow them to be fired without cause during their first year of work. In the good ole U.S.of A., that's known as "at will employment" -- and it's pretty much the arrangement that any worker who hasn't signed a contract operates under (which is a lot of us, including young attorneys, as I remember well).

Even so, before Americans get too smug, let's remember the vaporings of the teachers' unions. It's worth noting that the French in the streets aren't the only opponents of free enterprise and robust competition. France's employment system is just tenure on steroids.