France is something of a nanny state. And, to be honest, the French absolutely love it.
People are paid to study, paid for all kinds of other endeavours, and supported by their government in most things they do from the cradle to the grave.
In fact, when any of their many benefits are cut back, they frequently riot and burn tyres in the street.
Some of the consequent common laws and practices may seem strange to us. For example, children are legally responsible for their parents, if their parents cannot afford to look after themselves.
Children must use their assets, even including their pensions, to make sure their parents have a roof over their heads, enough to eat, and all the basic necessities of life. If the children cannot afford this, the government provides, as they do for most things.
Medical care is definitely more extensive and better than what the NHS provides in the UK.
And, we in the UK are definitely moving in this direction. In fact, the chief economist of the World Bank wrote recently that the UK is becoming “a French tribute act, but without the hits”.
For example, we are being taxed more and more at the same time as public services are declining more and more.
Broadly speaking, the UK is moving from the more dynamic, low-tax, market-driven US model towards the high-spending, high-tax, low-growth, government-driven French model, to the detriment of its economic performance. Some rather glaring examples include:
Government spending increased from 39% of GDP in 2019 to 50% during the pandemic, and is now at 44% - much closer to France's 58% of GDP.
The UK and France are both experiencing low economic growth, 0.5% for the UK and 0.7% for France. The US is expected to grow 2.7% this year.
The UK has seen punitive tax rises and is struggling to balance its books, with a deficit of 4.4% of GDP compared to 5.5% in France.
Declining public services and infrastructure. France has maintained relatively effective public services like healthcare and transportation, but the UK is struggling with crumbling public services and infrastructure that underperform compared to France.
In all the media coverage and reports one reads however, strangely, no one asks the question or answers it “Why is France so much more successful than the UK? Why are we now a tribute act with no hits?”
The answer is simple, I believe.
In France everything in their economic system and their fiscal and monetary policy was planned to be as it is and to work. In the UK it is total chaos and most everything has happened by accident and things such as higher taxes and welfare and reduced public spending, happened by accident rather than by planning.
If we now want a country more like France than the US, we need to get to work seriously on planning for it to work efficiently. This, rather than political parties jousting and trying to put half measures in place to satisfy everyone on all sides; these things never work.
