Two starkly different visions of the future of public policy are being laid out by France’s central bank chief Christian Noyer and recently elected Socialist President François Hollande. The Wall Street Journal explains those positions today.
“The underlying objective,” Mr. Noyer writes, “is growth. Not just a temporary spurt, sustained artificially by public spending, but strong and lasting growth that creates jobs and is based on the development of modern and competitive production capacity. This kind of growth cannot just be summoned up. It requires a profound change in public policy.”
With French President François Hollande pushing older workers into retirement to “make room” for the jobless young, we hope he pays attention to Mr. Noyer’s words on jobs: “Public policies are often overly concerned with preserving the jobs of the past, at times to the detriment of future job creation.” He adds: “Today’s jobs are not the same as those of yesterday and, likewise, those of tomorrow will be different from the jobs that exist today.”
