The inimitable Mark Steyn has a new article on the situation in France. In a move that should surprise no one, the French government has not opted for a logical solution.

Instead, the Prime Minister has announced 'a raft of measures', although, as rafts go, this one doesn't seem likely to make it to shore. The measures include 'the creation of an anti-discrimination agency', '20,000 job contracts with local government agencies' reserved for those in the less fashionable arrondissements, an extra E100 million for 'associations' in said neighbourhoods, etc.

In other words, M. de Villepin's prescribed course of treatment is to inject the patient with a stronger dose of the disease.

That's exactly what I thought when I read the "measures" in the previous paragraph. Everything they propose will only make things worse. Let's take a look:

1. "the creation of an anti-discrimination agency"

This might turn out to be just a useless exercise in pro-multicultural advertising, but given that this is a socialist-leaning government I suspect they might be a little more proactive in their attempts at enforcing equity. I shudder to think of the rights and freedoms that this agency will be mandated to infringe upon. In any case, ask the government to solve a problem for you and they will always decide the solution is more government, which brings us to proposal 2...


2. "20,000 job contracts with local government agencies - reserved for those in the less fashionable arrondissements"

What an interesting idea it is to follow step #1, creating an anti-discrimination agency, with step number 2, a blatantly discriminatory hiring policy. It is unclear from the article if these are currently existing jobs (whose current contractors might be a little non-plussed to hear that they no longer qualify for their positions when their contracts are up) or if these are jobs to be created in the future. If they are to be newly created jobs then this is just a much more expensive version of welfare. Recipients will now receive triple the take home pay, plus benefits and 8 weeks vacation. Unlike real jobs that stimulate the economy, fake government jobs will only lead to increased taxes, a reduced economy, and fewer real jobs. So what will they do for the growing group of unfortunates who don't get one of the 20,000 super welfare positions? That would be step #3...

3. "an extra E100 million for 'associations'"

This is vague, but I am going to guess that these associations are local Muslim lobby groups who will use the money to create even bigger mailing lists to put more pressure on government to give more money, so that they can organize bigger rallies to put more pressure on government to... Imagine a live socialist version of an Escher print. Or perhaps they want to create after-school programs where the disaffected "youth" can go to plot tonight's outings in a safe accepting environment.

Steyn sums it up perfectly:

When you've got estranged demographic groups with 50–60 per cent unemployment and an over-regulated economy that restricts social mobility, lavish welfare is nothing more than government-subsidised festering. That doesn't seem a smart move.