SIC TRANSIT FRANCE :

The Fight for Quality of Life : How long can the French continue to afford their excellent — and expensive — public services? (BRUCE CRUMLEY, TIME)

Imagine that France was a developing country. What would the International Monetary Fund tell it to do? The state is France's biggest employer, directly providing nearly 25% of all jobs and indirectly supporting a further 15% — the IMF would certainly not approve. It would point out that by shrinking the public sector, the French could cure their spendthrift ways. (Last year public spending represented 51.4% of GDP.) The IMF would argue that by privatizing many services now assured by the state — from health care to transport to pensions — French wage earners would be left not only with more money in their pockets, but also with cheaper, more efficient services. And finally, the IMF would scold, lose that 35-hour week and get yourself a real work ethic.

Back on planet France, however, that wake-up-and-smell-the-austerity message is hardly being aired. France's big government is not only alive and well, it's getting bigger and more expensive all the time — and the French like it that way.

And as Western populations age and retire they are just going to keep demanding more and more public services, paid for by ever fewer workers, until the whole thing implodes. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 18, 2002 8:08 AM