Pay attention, Republicans

In Setback for Chirac, French Veer Left in Regional Vote
By CRAIG S. SMITH

Published: March 29, 2004

While many French voters support Mr. Chirac's foreign policies…the unpopularity of Mr. Chirac's domestic economic program has become a dominant issue here and was the major theme in the elections, which were effectively a midterm referendum on his administration.

Teachers, hospital workers, scientists and firefighters have all taken to the streets in recent months to protest changes that are meant to make the French work harder and get less in retirement.

Posted by Prometheus 6 on March 29, 2004 - 9:11am :: Politics
 
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To be fair, this is a recurring problem in European politics--the cost of the social welfare state is too high, it has to be more restrictive (for example, universities have to occasionally flunk nonperforming students), and even the French have limits as to how much they're willing to pay in taxes. Year after year the government fails to bite the bullet and costs rise.

This can be taken as a warning not to allow social welfare states to grow without a clear overriding plan. Usually this is a problem if government programs are advanced on the rationale that they are compassionate. In the case of France, it's regarded as barbaric to impose some restraints on what the state pays out to whom. Eventually, there's a big crunch.

Posted by  James R MacLean (not verified) on March 29, 2004 - 7:48pm.

Same problem, except in the USofA it's the wealthy that gets the majority of the social welfare.

Posted by  P6 (not verified) on March 29, 2004 - 10:41pm.