Article from The Republican Herald of Pottsville, PA, January 2011

http://republicanherald.com/news/a-happy-new-year-from-the-biggest-pessimists-in-the-world-1.1097960

Happy New Year from the biggest pessimists in the world !

As the first decade of the 21st century came to an end and a new decade began on Jan. 1, 500,000 revellers, guzzling from bottles of champagne, celebrated on the Champs Elysees of Paris, known as the most beautiful avenue in the world. Six hours later, on the other side of the Atlantic, a crowd of more than a million cheered and embraced as the ball dropped in Times Square. I rang in the new year somewhere in between, cramped in an economy class seat somewhere over the Atlantic, travelling from the United States to France. In the plane, there was no champagne, no party, just faint applause when the captain announced the arrival of 2011 on the European continent.

In contrast to the outpourings of joy on both sides of the Atlantic, my "celebration" seemed somehow the most appropriate in light of a BVA-Gallup International poll released on Jan. 3 by the French daily "Le Parisien." Its purpose was to gauge the morale of 53 countries around the globe, and France ranked the most pessimistic in the world. The Vietnamese came in first for optimism, and among the top 10 runners in the race for a better future were China, India and Brazil, with Afghanistan in 10th place. For information, the United States held a median position, just behind our neighbor Canada, a sign that perennial American optimism may be flagging. Among the top 10 pessimists, all belong to old-world European countries such as Great Britain, Iceland and Rumania.

On the afternoon of Jan. 1, I returned to my apartment and indeed things did look bleak. The streets were deserted and the sky, dark and oppressively low. The Christmas holidays here were not the merriest, in large part because of exceptionally heavy snowfall, which wreaked havoc on the ground and in the air, forcing many Frenchmen to postpone their winter holidays; and, as my regular readers know, for the French vacation time is sacre (sacred). A single day shaved off at either end literally becomes an affair of state, and the transport minister must answer for it, as she did on the most listened to national radio station, France Inter, on Jan. 2.

Are a few too many snowflakes really enough to make the French the biggest pessimists in the world? To tell the truth, the French naturally lean in that direction, and where Americans might see the glass half-full, the French definitely see it half-empty. Their country retains its fifth-place rank among world powers, and their system of health care and social protection should rightly be a source of national pride. The country is beautiful, the infrastructures and banking system sound, and the food …. well, the food is great. Is the pessimism then unfounded, or might it have it roots in the very same phenomenon that is making Americans look towards the future with a worried eye?

To sum up the source of French pessimism in three words, it's all about jobs, housing and youth, which, until recent times, was France's greatest source of hope. Since 1985, mass unemployment has been an endemic presence in the French economic landscape. For the past decade, its burden has fallen mostly on the young, better qualified than ever, yet all too often forced to accept low-paying jobs, far below the level of their skills - if they can find a job at all. Many stay in school, the crumbling, but basically free, public university system where I work, accumulating diplomas while holding on to a respectable status, that of a university student, and certain benefits, such as subsidized housing and scholarships based on need. Why step outside into the real world when it means stepping down the economic and social ladder to a rung inferior to their parents', in a society that does not, or cannot, make a place for them.

A decade ago, when the new millennium began, optimistic predictions promised young people jobs. Baby boomers were leaving the workplace in droves, and would continue to do so for the first two decades of the new century. Ten years later, these predictions have not panned out, and economic growth has slowed almost to a trickle in a society where the haves - those with jobs and social protection - hold tight to their gains, whereas the have-nots - many of them young college graduates - remain on the outside, neglected by politicians, few of whom are under 50, and employers, who consider 50 the beginning of old age.

Once young people leave school, these members of the boomerang generation, loaded down with diplomas but earning minimum wage, have no other option but to move back in with mom and dad. Nor can they easily marry, have children, establish a credit rating or simply get on with life. Those lucky enough to achieve independence through good jobs and a decent salary see their income eaten up by hefty rents or mortgage payments and heavy transportation costs ($3 for a gallon of gas is a bargain-basement price for the French). Other countries are experiencing the boomerang effect, but in France, it is particularly serious, as anyone who has reached age 40 knows. That's when employers start reminding workers they're getting old.

For their children, all parents want a life better than their own, but French parents are starting to believe that things will only get worse for their offsprings. This is the root of their pessimism, and, many American parents, facing similar perspectives, would agree their fears are legitimate.

To transform the ominous fate of the young into a promising destiny, much in France would have to change, beginning with labor and tax law, according to specialists. Low-cost housing, especially in urban centers, is also sorely needed. But such change would require investment, and France, like the United States, is saddled by public and private debt. Like the United States as well, there is little consensus about how these problems should be solved among citizens fed up with the unfulfilled promises of political leaders. In such circumstances, it is difficult to move forward, but in this revolution-loving country, if France does not, it may explode.

I'm tempted to conclude by saying "Happy New Year" anyway. And my new year's wish is that Americans, despite hard economic times, not lose their gift for walking on the "sunny side of the street," one of their greatest strengths.

(Honicker can be reached at honicker.republicanherald@gmail.com)