Yup this one in France is really a big problem. The public sector spendings officially represents something like 58.1% of the french GDP (official "Insee" numbers from 2023, for 2022)... France is not far from a planned economy and, unsurprisingly, it's a particularly harsh environment for real small private SMEs (i.e. those without friends at the state) and for entrepreneurs, for they're getting trounced by taxes.
And that gigantic state (percentage wise of the GDP, not on the world stage) still cannot prevent days of riots and drug-dealers from ruling the streets (like in the city of Marseille).
A deeply corrupt state where public servants are planted so that taxes can grow and, in return, the people don't even get safe streets.
But all is fine and well for these corrupt politicians because soon they'll be able to prevent comments such as yours or mine from being read by anyone.
Ofcourse for the rest of Europe this is a good thing- French military ambitions have been consistently sabotaged by this oversight. Good military, brilliant engineers and capable bureaucrats but terrible merchants. And wars are won on the stock market.
For the kings sure… for the people much less.
Imagine england being defeated and india being free of colonialism.
But I understand that the anglosaxon history might be a bit biased and edited.
For one thing, France is and remains one of the richest countries in the world. For a second thing, I seem to remember that France is currently outperforming both Germany and the UK (I read this in both German and British newspapers, but I don't remember the details).
Is it perfect? Far from it. But French bashing feels pretty counter-productive.
The US has Detroid, LA gangs, SF with the streets filled with homeless people...
Marseille's worst neighborhoods are really chill compared to the bad parts of any American city.
The streets are pretty safe.
Your comment is kinda ridiculous, stop watching TV.
Yeah there are lot of taxes, but those taxes come in handy when you can get 2 years of unemployment benefits when starting a company. Or when you know, get a cancer that would cost a few millions to treat.
Of course, France is striving to import a more retarded and dangerous populace as quickly as possible, so who knows who will win that contest.
I have no knowledge of the worst American cities, but saying that Marseille's worst neighborhoods are "chill" and "The streets are pretty safe" is pure madness.
There are dozens of worst places around SF, LA, NYC, Chicago. There are no crackheads in Marseille. 100x less guns than in any American city.
And even with that, I would be safer if I kept a low profile with my head down and by not getting into troubles and by avoiding some taverns. Try that at the worst places of any big city in the US.
https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2023/08/17/a-marseill...
Same in Germany as well. The country long stopped caring for its people and mainly operates as a vehicle for german industrial interests to make money.
>There're a bunch of corrupted inviduals with no counter power to keep them in check.
The guillotine has proven this to be incorect. Separating their heads from their bodies helps keep rulers unable to perform further acts of corruption.
The opposition in France are far from being angels, it's very similar to Democrats vs Republican situation in France (except Gauche vs Droite).
Checks and balances that get eroded during populist waves, stay that way when the monster comes.