France
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Insightful piece by Thomas Chatterton Williams in the Atlantic.
“Nihilists of the kind we’ve seen flood the streets of France from coast to coast will never uphold their end of the social contract, no matter how beautifully it is drafted.”
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It’s a society that has been living above its means for close to 50 years and its leadership doesn’t have the courage to tell them. I guess they’re just waiting for the IMF or EU to force it on them so they don’t look like the bad guy.
I’m reminded of the line from Basquiat, (the French economist not the English vandal/artist):
“The State is the great fiction through which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else.”
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I'm sure Macron's pandering to the ultra rich (abolishing the wealth tax, reducing capital gains taxes, giving corporations cushy tax rates) has had nothing to do with France's economic woes. Much like here in the US starting with Reagan. Oh, no. It's always the lower classes who are pinned with blame for societal upheavals. Well, I think we are nearing the end of this game, inequality has reached breaking points and a lot more people now are aware of how oligarchy is fleecing society.
The US should be so lucky to have a smidge of French resistance.
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French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday blamed “foreign leaders,” including those “on the other side of the Atlantic,” for trying to exploit France’s tense social climate for their own political agenda. Protests over soaring living costs have led to widespread rioting and looting. Trump has used the violence to rally his political supporters, making unsubstantiated claims that Muslim migrants are responsible for the unrest.
Macron responded by saying there “has been foreign manipulation of information in the aftermath” of the looting in Paris and other French cities. “And that has led to comments that are as unacceptable as they are stupid, from many people, including foreign leaders,” he said.
Asked by a reporter if he was referring to Trump, Macron replied: “Among others.” Macron added: “We’ve seen AI-generated images depicting scenes that never actually happened in France. We’ve had people claiming that we were invaded by hordes of migrants and Islamists, which is completely false.”
--NBC
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I would like to point out the following :
Insofar as some of the rioters are actually concerned with “austerity” and “neoliberalism” it’s worth pointing out that France's level of public social spending is the third highest in the world at 30.6% of GDP and its total public spending is 57.2%, second highest among large countries not at war.
What’s my point? It’s a pretty important one. There is no scenario where the protesters ‘win’. The inevitable result is the protesters get educated by reality. But I’m cynical enough to believe that the educators won’t be their leaders, who are cowards, but some international organization setting conditions for France’s bailout.
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It’s a society that has been living above its means for close to 50 years and its leadership doesn’t have the courage to tell them. I guess they’re just waiting for the IMF or EU to force it on them so they don’t look like the bad guy.
I’m reminded of the line from Basquiat, (the French economist not the English vandal/artist):
“The State is the great fiction through which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else.”
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