Re: But investors want privatization for real. Not just cough up some money for the French to shave a bit of the public deficit.
If the privatization for real comes, together with that of Gaz de France and EDF, then France will be tasting a bit of...
...REVOLUTION! What of all the displaced workers? There are already 6+ million Frenchmen living off subsistence checks. The real problem is that --the fuss over Polish plumbers notwithstanding-- there really is NO labor mobility in Europe. Workers who get the pink slip in Belgium are very unlikely to move to Italy or Ireland or Portugal to find their next job. Ironically, the only truly mobile workforce in Europe is the one made up of non-European immigrants: Moroccan, Turkish, Ukrainian, Congolese,... stowaways are ready to criss-cross Europe until they find a place that can durably provide a livelihood. EU nationals, on the other hand, stick to their local work market except for those whose parents emigrated in the first place: for instance, Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese that emigrated to France, Belgium,... in the 1950s/60s see their children going back to Italy, Spain or Portugal. Of course, part of the reason is language.
Gus |
