Will work for food

I don't know if you noticed, but there was a "general" strike in France this week. If you did notice your reaction may have been somewhat akin to mine: "And yet Americans look at strikes in Athens, Madrid or Paris with a sense of derision verging on disgust. Here they go again, those lilly-livered French, crying over the fact that their retirement age may go up to a horrifying 62 years of age."
That quote is actually the BBC's Matt Frei, but for someone who's not American, he pretty much nailed it for me. Frei talks about the difference between the European mentality and the American one with regard to labor. He introduces the concept of the "right to work" being an entitlement in Europe.
What he doesn't point out (graciously, I suppose) is that American entitlements are predicated on NOT working. I can't imagine a United States in which everyone was entitled to a job. I'm not sure why this could be seen as a bad thing. (Oh, how awful. If you want a job, you can get one.)
But seen in this light the labor strikes make a little more sense. I still can't get all that indignant about the retirement age going up in France when our politicians have tossed out the number 70 here, but I can kinda see where a whole bunch of people who aren't working can feel legitimately pissed off at the government because of it.
Somehow that's just not translating nationwide here. You'd think with so many people living in poverty, and so many more unemployed, it might catch on.