briansd1 wrote: Have you

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=briansd1]
Have you heard of the French economic paradox? France is a very productive country despite the 35-hour work week and retirement at 60.

France has corporate giants in every field.

Over the last few decades (to even out for the bubble periods), compare a working-class Frenchman in Avignon to a working-class Brit in Leeds to a working-class American in Springfield, MO.

[/quote]

Brian: You raise a valid point, but you’re also leaving quite a bit out. Yes, I’m aware of Carrefour, France Telecom and Axa, but you also need to mention the significant support the French government provides, as well as the massive subsidies. You should also mention the French corporate losers, like Renault or Dassault, showing that governments (including the US, to be fair) pick losers far more than winners.

Rather than comparing a Frenchman from Avignon with someone from Leeds, UK, why don’t we compare that same Frenchman with someone far closer, meaning a Muslim youth in a French banlieue?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_situation_in_the_French_suburbs

Like the US and UK, the French have been “papering over” their situation for decades as well, and the bill is now coming due. Given the level of state employment and involvement, as well as the state’s role in French society, the situation will unravel differently than in America or Britain, but it is unraveling, of that there is no doubt.

So, I wouldn’t necessarily characterize it as the “French Economic Paradox”, per se. Whether American or European, we’ve all binged on way too much debt and various companies, states and nations essentially wrote present value checks on future value “earnings” and the repo man is here now.