Can you say “consequences?” Nine nights of rioting in Paris are a good example of what happens when a generation of impoverished immigrants decides they have had enough. Or would that be Not Enough?
Here’s one story in this morning’s New York Times:
France has been grappling for years with growing unrest among its second- and third-generation immigrants, mostly North African Arabs, who have faced decades of high unemployment and marginalization. Critics say Mr. Sarkozy’s confrontational approach has polarized the communities and the government.
I love the part about the cars from this story!
Burning cars as a form of protest is not unusual in the largely immigrant, working-class neighborhoods. Unemployment rates there are 30 percent or more, while the national rate is 10 percent. More than 20,000 cars have been set ablaze in France so far this year, according to a government report cited by the newspaper Le Figaro.
Who’s next? The United States just might be next in line, according to the signs pointed out by USA Today:
Over two decades, the income gap has steadily increased between the richest Americans, who own homes and stocks and got big tax breaks, and those at the middle and bottom of the pay scale, whose paychecks buy less.
