Trivial Pursuits in Paris and Detroit

George F. Will looks at entitlement mentalities in Paris and Detroit. An excerpt:

France has been convulsed by young people whose sense of entitlement was affronted by a law -- now withdrawn in a triumph of mob rule -- that would have allowed employers to fire a young worker in the first two years of employment. Detroit's crisis also involves an entitlement mentality.

Under contracts negotiated, beginning in 1984, with the United Auto Workers (UAW), there are about 14,700 laid-off autoworkers in the "Jobs Bank." About 7,500 of them are from GM. They get paid most of their wages and benefits -- between $100,000 and $130,000 a year, for an annual cost to GM of $750 million to $900 million.

The former workers -- expected to be 17,000 by next year -- are required to do nothing that adds value to the auto companies. Some attend classes given by GM. The Wall Street Journal reports that one worker took a class in which he learned how to play Trivial Pursuit.

Click here for the entire article. It's must reading.