Ignoring the Elephant

Jack Kelly on the riots in France:

It’s harder to ignore the elephant in the living room when the elephant is setting fire to it.***

There is no social mobility in France because the economy is stagnant. Unemployment is high. If French scientists have to emigrate to find work, what chance do those with few job skills have of grabbing a rung on the shrinking corporate ladder, much less of climbing it?

For the children of immigrants to have the same opportunities in France they do in the United States, taxes must be cut, regulations slashed, the minimum wage reduced, trade restrictions eased, labor unions weakened. But no politician in France would dare propose such remedies.

So there is a search for less controversial ones. ***

The elephant isn’t really there, the media assure us. “The violence in France has not taken on religious overtones,” said The New York Times. “Islamic ideology and leaders play no role in the disturbances,” said The Washington Post.

But the “disaffected youth” shout “Allahu Akbar” as they toss Molotov cocktails into churches and synagogues. They talk of turning Paris into “Baghdad on the Seine.”

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