Are we too tolerant of layoffs?

In today's Washington Post Book World, Foreign Policy editor in chief Moisés Naím reviews The Disposable American by New York Times reporter Louis Uchitelle, who argues that America has become too tolerant of large-scale layoffs and firings:  Though Uchitelle knows better than to hold Europe up as a model, many of the policies he favors ...

In today's Washington Post Book World, Foreign Policy editor in chief Moisés Naím reviews The Disposable American by New York Times reporter Louis Uchitelle, who argues that America has become too tolerant of large-scale layoffs and firings: 

In today's Washington Post Book World, Foreign Policy editor in chief Moisés Naím reviews The Disposable American by New York Times reporter Louis Uchitelle, who argues that America has become too tolerant of large-scale layoffs and firings: 

Though Uchitelle knows better than to hold Europe up as a model, many of the policies he favors have a strong European flavor — even though the usual European cocktail of welfare and labor conditions contributes to chronically high unemployment, sluggish economic growth, unfunded public programs and low productivity. Moreover, Europe's rigid labor markets especially penalize the poor, the unemployed and the unskilled, favoring instead a "labor oligarchy" of securely employed workers already ensconced in jobs. The above-average unemployment rates among Europe's youth and its impoverished immigrants are a factor behind the rising criminality, rioting and social turmoil that disproportionately afflict these groups.

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