Probably, you have read about the recent round of riots in France. They began in late September, and are now in their fourth week. This round of riots features mostly students, and the stated bases for the protests certainly appear quite mundane, if not trivial, and certainly out of proportion to the scale and intensity of the riots. What are they so worked up about? They are demanding things like hiring more teachers, repair of dilapidated school buildings, more and better air conditioning and heating, universal school lunches at 1 euro, and so forth. (Here is a list of the demands (in French) from something calling itself the Union of Students.).
Meanwhile the riots have involved hundreds of thousands of participants on many days, multiple schools burned down, lots of violence, and thousands of arrests (the majority, but far from all, being high school students).
The big picture is that France has painted itself into the inevitable corner at the end of the progressive project. As much or more than any other developed country, France has bought into the model of the government as universal protector against all downsides in life. Decades into this, they have way excessive government spending, unsustainable public debt, economic stagnation, and not nearly enough money to go around to fund all the entitled interest groups. It’s a battle of all against all in a zero sum game where the only way to hold onto your share of the state handouts is to scream louder and riot more intensely than the others.
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