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To add to Solveig's comment about French attitudes toward the market, a study quoted in today's WSJ (subscription required) says that "76% of French between the ages of 15 and 30 hope to become government employees."
This is the product, at least in part, of:
French college textbooks [that] are generally biased against globalization, deeply anti-American and somewhat complacent towards terrorism. French students are taught to approach the future with foreboding and skepticism of market forces. But "working for the government" provides not just an apparent security; it is also a way to tell other people what to do without bearing the responsibility for actually accomplishing anything.
As Ray noted in his blog on Beef, Gas & IP, regulation exacerbates the problems is purports to solve, which then triggers a need for more regulation, and, not incidentally, an increase in the power and perks of the regulators.
The U.S. is hardly immune to this spiral -- viz, SOX; campaign finance; telecom rules; or dozens of other areas.
posted by James DeLong @ 10:44 AM | International
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