While traveling through Europe recently I tried to get a handle on the controversy surrounding France's now abandoned First Job Contract (CPE) law, which was meant to make it easier for companies to hire young people. However, those same young people thought the law would make it easier for companies to exploit them since they could be fired more readily than under current laws.
The French didn't come off well. The English language media in Europe characterized the student protesters as being naive and spoiled, the labor unions as being out-of-touch with economic realities, and the government as being either lazy or easily intimidated.
An editorial in the International Herald Tribune written by two officers of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas called France's current labor laws "uncompetitive and a drain on the economy" and said that public reaction to the CPE showed how seriously the French people "misunderstood" the "globalizing economy."