It is Black Thursday, and France is on strike. In this area, there are no buses, no trams, very few trains, only a few teachers in class... in short, things are a mess. The unions are protesting the dwindling purchasing power, the growing poverty rate, the shrinking job market, the fact that some of the remaining jobs are moving overseas... all legitimate complaints, to be sure. Unfortunately, the unions are very long on blaming the government for not solving the problems and very short on suggesting solutions. They want more pay and benefits for the workers and don’t realize that making French labor less competitive will hardly keep the jobs from going to Asia. Between the Left and Right, it’s a dialogue of the deaf; a strike will not provide the new perspective we need.