Posted on 12/14/2018 6:57:05 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Few 'deplorables' on this side of the pond are shedding any tears over the predicament that French President Emmanuel Macron finds himself in with the violent protests erupting throughout France. The man is an arrogant globalist whose pretensions both for himself and his country reach far beyond their means. And it is hard to forget that Macron recently insulted America by saying Europe needs a strong military to defend itself not just from the Russia and the Chinese but also the U.S. The ignorance of such a statement is breathtaking. And it is humorous to think that the fragmented European Union could coalesce enough to form an effective military.
As for the riots. Marcon's fuel tax has precipitated the 'Yellow Vest' rage that is sweeping France. But there is more to the protests than just that. The rural areas of France have fallen significantly behind the urban centers, especially Paris where the elite hang their hats. People in the hinterland feel neglected and bypassed by globalism. Adding to the discontent is the fact that France has the highest tax burden in the European Union (except for Belgium) coupled with a stubbornly high unemployment rate -- 9.3% compared with 3.4% in Germany and 4% in the U.S.
Essentially the French working class wants a bigger piece of the pie. But the problem is that France has ossified. New business creation and expansion is very difficult because of hidebound bureaucratic rules and regulations. Companies have little flexibility to grow, innovate or even manage their work forces. This freezes the French labor market in place. For many of the young, the best way to obtain gainful employment is to migrate.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Article is on-target.
French population has an extreme sense of entitlement to a series of totally unrealistic goals.
Has for 130 years.
I see this as a class struggle of the “country” class vs. the elites. Viva la Yellow Jackets!
Once you start a government program, it is almost impossible to end it. Often, the demand is to SPEND MORE MONEY on programs that do not work and that threaten to bankrupt the economy.
SEE: MEDICAID, SOCIAL SECURITY
Every election gets fought on the battlefield of maintaining/increasing social benefits. All other issues get crowded out of the room.
We may be there too. 47% (Romney figure & probably correct!) is going to be hard to turn around!
I know! I know! Let's import more jihadis, uh, workers!
Based on former work colleagues, I find it accurate. The French guys went around with an Obama-like nose-in-the-air attitude of superiority and did the least possible work and most of the complaining.
Thank you!!
They are not us deplorables who wanted less govr.
They want more. They just dont want to pay for it.
And who is under those yellow outfits?
I can bet who some are.
The problem with France and with all democracies is that you can’t change who the electorate is. Stupid voters don’t get smart just because you need reform.
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"Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), receives 23.5 per cent of support, while beleaguered Emmanuel Macron’s La Republique en Marche (LREM) has only 15 per cent of support.
France (European Election 2019), Ifop poll:
RN-ENF: 23.5%
LREM-ALDE: 15%
PS/EELV/PCF/G.s-S&D/G-EFA/LEFT: 14%
LR-EPP: 13%
FI-LEFT: 11.5%
DLF-EFDD: 7.5%
UDI-ALDE: 4%
NPA-LEFT: 1.5%
Field work: 3/12/18 – 4/12/18
--------------------------------
Frogs will be frogs; US Republicans got nothing on nationalism compared to the French.
But I don't agree with the writer that it is an impossible dream and a national economy is never a zero sum game. France has a lot farther to go than the US, but a strong new leader can reduce taxes, drastically reduce regulation and quit spending billions on the climate change lies. France does enforce the burka laws and has successfully prosecuted hundreds in regard to the FGM horrors perpetrated upon young women and girls in France. They can be tough but the limousine liberal globalists like Macron have turned away from law enforcement.
The large majority of the rural yellow vests are asking for handouts, they want a fair deal.
I think the whole EU is in trouble because they may well be incapable of decent leadership. I think they are headed to war again. The colonial impulse has never gone away, and I am convinced that is what the whole borderlessness thing is about. Macron gave away how ill-thought-out the whole scheme is because the Euro-elites can’t really deal with anyone telling them no like Trump did. They are great at punishing their friends and they get so distracted with that that they seem to forget everything else and instead spiral into petty stupidity. The world is not a particularly forgiving place of petty stupidity.
And 10% of the ‘French’ population is muslim. That is a slow poison to society.
"The large majority of the rural yellow vests are NOT asking for handouts, they want a fair deal.
Bkmrk
They polulation has been on big-government opiods so long, they can no longer see the forest - of economic reality, for the trees - that the government provides and that they love.
Everything they want will cost the economy in one way or another, in higher costs directly or in higher taxes which will produce higher costs as the taxes get passed on in the goods and services in the private sector. Yet they are all complaining that everything costs too much.
Perhaps, but what % of the overall population are they?
Changing the electorate is what mass migration is for.
This leads to the French dilemma. The middle class and working poor in France want a better life for themselves and their children. But at the same time, they (and French society in general) are resistant to meaningful changes. Economic reform is something all French presidents have attempted in recent years. None has been successful.
This poses a paradox. If the above is true, why then is France as wealthy as it is? After all, France has the third largest economy in the European Union
Well, duh, France (by a small margin) has the 2nd largest population in the EU. Great Britain's economy does very slightly better, in terms of "per capita", and Italy is a little worse. Of the top 4 EU countries (by population) only Germany's economy does substantially better, per capita. France's wealth is mostly due to sheer population size and momentum from better days.
BTW, an interesting stat popped out while I was looking at various countries GDP numbers: Russia's GDP was USD 2,031.768 Billion in 2011, declined to USD 1,283,286 in 2016, and is back up (estimated for 2018) to USD 1,576.488 billiuon. This is for somewhere in the neighborhood of 144 million people. That's a lousy economy really dependent on oil and gas prices...
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