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Paris

 Paris has many qualities, first it’s a pretty city, and the centre once you get used to it is well organized. The French are relatively civilized people. Slightly less pompous than the BRITs, and somewhat more fun than The Germans.

France’s biggest weakness Is the entitlement. This is not a new thing, and has been a feature of the country for a long time. In France, everything gravitates towards Paris. In actuality, until very recently virtually all aircraft that went into the region had to fly by Paris. There’s also a mindset within the population, that they have signed a social contract, which is Entirely one-sided.

The state as a portion of GDP, is one of the largest in Europe, and even dwarfs the Germans. In addition, in the 1970s, France, and Germany actually broke a social contract to make things easier and push the problems further into the future. Effectively, French pensions are paid directly out of the state coffers. The problem with this method is that there’s no concept of savings or putting money aside for when these pension obligation arise.

France, within Europe, is in a peculiar position. It remained agricultural far longer than the rest of Europe. Part of the reason, is that the land is excellent, and the various European agreements have made it attractive for French people to remain farmers for longer than they should have. To this day, France has a smallest farms in all of Europe, with the obvious implication that they are not terribly efficient. 

Unfortunately, for France, like the rest of Europe, demographics is not their friend. France has been slower at seeing and declining birth rate That doesn’t mean it has not been present. In addition, Wood, the retirement age of 62 an average longevity of 85, it creates pension obligation that France cannot meet.

Francis is only solution has been to cut services. Education, and pension have bore the brunt of these cuts. The demonstrations by the students in Paris, a few days ago is a cry of despair by the quality of French education, only in terms of teaching, but also in terms of physical plant.

Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions. France’s Tax rate is already one of the highest in Europe. The one obvious solution is to dramatically reduce the civil service. considering that more than 50% Of France’s Labour force is active inside of the Civil Service, he gives arise to additional problem for the president and his Prime Minister‘s.

For no country in the OECD is there an obvious solution to the demographic challenges that faces it. Germany and Italy are further along the demographic precipice, but Germany particular has far lower government deficits. So it has a bit more room to maneuver.

There are no economic theories that deal with demographic collapse. Every single theory left or right, always assume a Growing population. Interesting times.

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