The Protests in France Are Excellent
What does it look like to have a country where people are angry about their government and actually do something about it? Why, it looks like France! With six days of full-on national protests, with half-a-million people marching and students leaving schools en masse and factories of all sorts shut down, this is what you get when a significant percentage of workers have a way to come to agreement about rights that they would prefer for working people. You know: things that they think are in their best interests. Because they don't spend their days in Stockholm Syndrome with the rich, begrudging welfare payments. The Parliament will vote on raising the retirement age later this week.
Even the chocolate-makers are on strike.
Oh and if you want to see the minority of protests, where there's some violence, those are here. Because we love violence!
The only protests that work here anymore are those that proclaim that your sports team is AWESOME.
Who would have thought that good old theory-ridden France would be the last Western nation with a hold on some semblance of reality, while the empiricism-loving nations of Britain and the U.S. flail around in a fever dream of ideology and rationalist utopian fantasy?
It's a shame they're protesting such stupid shit.
…Such a nuanced critique!
I guess it may be hard to realize that other cultures may not conform to your value-set.
This is what a free country looks like.
That Walton family, they're good people. Yep.
"Eviscerate the proletariat, John Boy."
The French have no idea how good they have it. Even with the reform, they'll still have it good.
They had better sort this shit out toute suite because I am going to Paris in two weeks and I have no patience for people who are protesting because they have to work a bit more.
I hate them for their freedoms.
I love the French penchant for collective action. However, what are the alternatives to raising the retirement age? It seems like with an aging workforce and a shrinking economy that's the most realistic option for everyone to continue to enjoy any kind of benefits. But maybe I'm missing something?
Pretty sure you're not. Rertirement at 60, plus the 35 hour work week is going to hit them hard in a few years. Then there will be residual bitterness at Sarkozy for not taking care of the problem when he had the chance, and more demonstrations. Same protests, different day.
Indeed. It's almost as though any given society has to strike a balance between "free government money" and "enough economic activity to get money to the government to spend". CRAZY.
Oui. France hasn't balanced a budget in 30 years and it's public debt is 3X the allowed EU level. But, you know, ANGER
We don't have a solution, but we do have signs! Allons-y!
It's amazing how these working class people don't appreciate that they should be the first to sacrifice their economic well-being to appease invisible bond market vigilantes. It's almost like they don't know their place or something!
Won't you all be happy when Congress raises the age at which one is entitled to collect social security to 70.
So, OK, the situation sucks, but you're still not proposing a workable alternative.
No, they don't have another solution. But, I'm pretty sure the consensus among the protesters-or at least the elites who are the mouthpieces for the organizations mobilizing much of the protesters-is that this is an issue that deserves more time to contemplate than the several weeks in congress it has been debated. That it is something fit for a presidential debate, not some midterm congressional ratification that had largely flown under the radar until recently.
@Jim: Actually, yeah, I will. I am extremely pro-raising-the-retirement-age. And even if I wasn't, DD is (as always!) correct: "Never raise taxes or decrease my benefits despite a horrifying budgetary crisis" is not a viable political platform.
The retirement age in France is 65. They can retire early at 60 with a proportionally reduced pension (just like you can in the US at 62) if they can afford it. There is no "free money" involved.
For some reason, Americans have no problem being drafted in their old age to work for politicians who can't budget.
Right, because without the government, people would be retiring even earlier. Government-funded pensions are a really nice, generous benefit that are a total luxury, and when governments run out of money they are just as likely to be on the table.
Again, it's another culture, man. Intelligent adults here don't perceive it as "a total luxury".
…But what do i know? I've just been in France for the last three months, living with a French family.
In France, c'est Parlement.
Ils sont Funquedelique.
No, Maxine, you hit the nail on the head. And like carpetblogger, I am set to go to France on Saturday and the strikes make traveling there even more hellish than usual. Sure, I'm feeling selfish about it, but I also lived in France for years so I know a little about how things go down there.
I love whining about the people whining about the French whining.
Don't you hate pants!
Under the pants… the underpants!
alors enfants
As someone who is in France (and has been for the last month and a half), things are getting dangerous. Now that all the students are involved, the protests are getting more violent, more quickly.
HOWEVER! One extremely redeeming quality: You will not find cheaper drinks in Paris. 2-euro mojitos and 50-cent cups of wine are really working out quite well.
Indeed, the protests are glorious and I vehmently oppose not only this legislation but any other sensible legislation that may be pursued by the french government. Hopefully this fresh bout of car burning and organised sloth is succesful and the french are dragged to the depths by the sheer weight of their frenchness.
Not to get anyone's hopes up too high, but I think some kind of civil war in france is a real possibility within next few decades. I was there last year and the air is heavy with hate in the banlieu. I've been to my fair share of undesirable locales but ive never experienced an atmosphere quite like it. These people do not only not consider themselves french, they hate france with an admirable vigour.
…
All (Obviously you've done a detailed tour of French banlieus to speak for the general atmosphere in "the banlieu") of the suburban-ghetto youths are alienated and do not feel represented in "mainstream" notions of French-ness?
Sentence holds true (if, in my opinion,a bit less descriptive what with that whole "all" qualifier) if you Replace French-ness, with say, American-ness.
And i would argue that much of the anger is directed not towards a cultural identity (which seems to be what you're arguing? A cultural civil war? French self-hate, which seems to get your rocks off?), but perceived shortcomings in the workings of the French government itself.
And yes, maybe that could lead to yet another republic (yay?).