The French government spends 58 percent of French GDP. Is it any wonder that the French economy reeks of long-term stagnation? From Daniel Lacalle at dlacalle.com:
Following the European elections, the French credit default swap has soared to a post-2020 record of 39 points. Many commentators blame the rise of the National Front for market turmoil, which has sent all euro area spreads higher. However, none of this would have happened if France’s debt was low, finances were strong, and the euro area economies enjoyed healthy economic growth.
France is the world’s poster child for statism. The same statism that some politicians seek to impose on the United States has economically devastated France, a wonderful country with excellent human capital and outstanding entrepreneurs.
France never had austerity. It has the world’s largest government relative to the size of the economy. Government spending to GDP exceeds 58%, the highest in the world. Unions are exceedingly powerful. Their ability to organize paralyzing strikes gives them a level of economic power that far exceeds their actual representation. France’s state is so large that the public sector employs 5.3 million people (21.1% of the active population), a ratio of civil servants to inhabitants of 70.9/1,000, according to Eurostat. France has one of the highest taxation systems in the OECD. In France, income tax and employer social security contributions combine to account for 82% of the total tax wedge, according to the OECD. Corporate tax rates in France are also extremely high, at 26.5%, with companies with profits of more than €500,000 paying a rate of 27.5%. The labor market regulations in France are so restrictive that the number of companies with forty-nine employees is 2.4 times higher than those with fifty, primarily due to the significant burdens businesses face once they reach the fifty-employee threshold. According to Bloomberg, a 50-employee company must create “three worker councils, introduce profit sharing, and submit restructuring plans to the councils if the company decides to fire workers for economic reasons”.
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Redistribution uber alles!
Who will pay for the replacements’ free stuff when all are on the dole?
There’s a bug and a pod for that, comrade!
The glorious egalitarian equity utopia with equality of results for all as the faculty lounge has finally conquered human nature.
Internal quislings just love them some Euro socialism…to burn it all down better! (rimshot)
Coming soon…already here?
This just in from Alice Smith:
Love Endeavor (Maurice Fulton Remix)