The students of France have taken to the streets to protest a new bill that would allow employers to give them at-will employment for the first two years. I'm a victim and unfortunate advocate of at-will employment. While most people would like to have an income through working sometimes its not possible in the current market.
Currently I'm a freelance web developer and nothing makes me sweat more than the time between projects. But it has its rewards. I get calls from recruiters on occassion who ask me about my workstatus and when they find out I freelance they assume I'd never go back to being corporate. My response, "If the money's right I'll work in the mailroom."
What I'm trying to get at is the students and youth have a skewed view of what the state can provide in the form of security. Sometimes to provide security you need to let the market correct itself and let in some insecurity. You can lose a lot of traction and let the country continue to slide or loose/gain a lot from free-market forces.
For those that don't know spend some time reading Thomas Friedman.
Coming from where I'm from there is two days on my calendar where I take time to reflect on the events of my past. Its not Christmas and New Years. Those have their own importance and I'll make that clear later. For me, the day is March 9th and November 17th. The two greatest rappers ever died less than 6 months apart. At the time I was a highschool senior, just itching to get outta Florida and go to college already. The rap game really changed after that for me. It went from "these niggas are loosing their damn minds" to "government conspiracy", and the "Tupac and Biggy is in witness protection because the record industry wants them dead." It seems the last one is the most correct and most flawed.
But back to March 9th, 1997 can you remember what you were doing that day? I had school, taking the bus to work (I had just crashed my car...go carrot!), and more work to do. Life goes on, but some memories stay with you for the rest of your life.
As for New Years, a lot of youth died for me on that day in 1996.