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On Monday, France’s Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez, admitted that police have “lost control” as some cities continue to see massive waves of looting and mayhem. Social media brims with images of stores being ransacked, cars burning and mask-wearing goons running wild. In Limoges, the beautiful Hotel de Ville was burned to the ground.

But the chaos, as is so often the case, began peacefully. And many supporters and leaders of the protests have condemned the violence. I think that violence has more to do with France’s miserable record of assimilating immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East than with budget cuts. Call me cynical, but I don’t believe the goons pillaging Louis Vuitton stores are planning to resell the handbags to buy better school supplies or to bolster their teachers’ salaries.

The initial protests were about budget cuts, primarily in education. As allied groups joined in — socialist and communist parties, labor unions, etc. — the argument expanded to generalized complaints about France’s “austerity” policies. In short they argued, as they have for generations, that the government should spend more on pensions and other entitlements.

The problem is that France can’t afford it. It’s borrowed money to pay for its lavish government sector for a very long time. It has run consecutive budget deficits — i.e., took in less than it spent — for more than half a century. In 1974, public debt was around 15% of its gross domestic product. Today it’s at 116%. Government spending now makes up 57% of the GDP and France spends three times as much on “social protection” — including pensions and family benefits — as does the United States, and more than any other country in Europe and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Naturally, the blame for........

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