France writes itself off as arrogant failure: New books see a country in decline

The Times ^ | September 26, 2003 | Charles Brumner

[Timesink]

Happy Monday!

[Timesink]

bump for bump list

[AntiGuv]

can't...stop...laughing!

[WRhine]

So I guess my question would be why does America want to be more like France? Has Socialism worked anywhere...EVER? Maybe all those Muslims they have been importing will help them out of their funk................yeah, that's the ticket.

[Young Rhino]

My nominee for best article of the week. France delenda est.

[Timesink]

Britons pay 45 per cent of their income to the state in taxes, compared with 75 per cent for the French.

How does the average French citizen even SURVIVE? I mean, sure, you don't have to pay (directly) for your socialized medicine, but what about your mortgage? Or food? The basics of life? How do you do that with only 25% of your income?

[freedomlover]

Britons pay 45 per cent of their income to the state in taxes, compared with 75 per cent for the French.

How does the average French citizen even SURVIVE? I mean, sure, you don't have to pay (directly) for your socialized medicine, but what about your mortgage? Or food? The basics of life? How do you do that with only 25% of your income?

You need to lower your expectations. Socialism has a way of doing that.

[Timesink]

You need to lower your expectations. Socialism has a way of doing that.

Excellent point.

[DainBramage]

France surrenders to the truth.

[Savage Beast]

"France lost its way under the left-wing reign"

"successive governments have squandered national wealth and heritage to maintain a protectionist, Soviet-style state"

Yes, and leftists (Democrats in the U.S.) would love to do to the United States what they have done to France (and California and Russia and Cuba)--and they will if the American people are stupid enough to let them.

"France, he says, is ripe for a near-revolutionary change

Wrong! France is ripe for a revolutionary change--and it's going to be much worse than M. Baverez thinks! Unless the French people wake up soon and face reality, the revolutionary change is going to be a Muslim takeover, and it's going to be much worse than the 1789 revolutionary change.

"France is losing its soul to mediocrity and needs a great leader"

Yes, and that great leader has stood before them for three years--President George Bush--urging the French people to act with him to save not only themselves but Western Civilization.

"There are none so blind as those who will not see."

There is no soul-sapping drug like decadence.

[ImaGraftedBranch]

and a quality of life that remains the envy of the world

LOL! I've been to Paris and various parts of France over two dozen times in ten years. What the hell are they talking about? 14,800 die without air conditioning, and all they have are space heaters in the winter. The air is worse than Houston, and it is crammed with islamic jihaddists.

The change I have seen in France over the last 10 years is alarming, to say the least.

[Prodigal Son]

Britons pay 45 per cent of their income to the state in taxes, compared with 75 per cent for the French.

They must be talking about total taxes here. Income tax in Britain is much less than 45%.

[Diogenesis]

[Free Vulcan]

self-ping

[jaykay]

Don't you have to start somewhere above the bottom to be able to decline?

[tkathy]

They could vote for an all Muslim government and then start murdering their way to world dominance.

[DustyMoment]

"The bulk of the reaction, holds that Baverez makes good points but neglects France’s qualities, such as the reforms that have opened markets, its place as Europe’s top recipient of foreign investment, and a quality of life that remains the envy of the world."

Those who actually believe the above paragraph are both delusional and certifiable. In a country that can't afford air-conditioning and allows nearly 15,000 of its citizens to die as the result of the heat; a country where the citizens don't bathe regularly; a country that refuses to add foreign words to its language so that the language may continue to live and remain relevant; this country is far from being "the envy of the world".

France is Europe's California, where decades of rampant liberalism and vote-buying have placed the nation on an economic collision course with reality. For all of his strutting, Chirac bears a strong similarity to Argentina's new president who is more concerned with establishing an EU-type union in South America and reclaiming the Falkland Islands from Britain than he is about the $141 Billion in Foreign debt that Argentina has defaulted on. Nero appears to be the role model for these fools who would rather continue to fiddle while their empires burn and collapse. The question is, when will the voters in these countries awaken from their trance and face facts?