▲France's mass protests, now in their fourth week, are spiraling out of control as looting, arson and violence spread. After high school students demanding better education conditions were joined by citizens and workers, the government estimated that about 550,000 people took to the streets on the 17th alone. The outpouring reflects pent-up anger that chronic fiscal deficits have pushed improvements to education, housing, transportation and other infrastructure for ordinary people to the back of the line. Tax increases and pension reform are urgently needed to restore fiscal health, but they are drawing only political backlash and social turmoil. Korea, which keeps putting off pension, labor and education reform, should take this as a cautionary lesson.
▲Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae again apologized to firefighters on the 19th during a parliamentary audit of the province over her remark about firefighting as a "fiscal straw." She also said she would "look more carefully into the safety and working conditions of firefighters." On the 13th, discussing local government finances and the budget for firefighters, who are state employees, she said firefighting "seems like the biggest headache, a fiscal straw," then stirred fresh controversy three days later by saying, "Since you want an apology, I apologize." The sincerity of an apology may rest not on words but on fixing the flawed system governing firefighters.