The French are, of course, totally nuts to be depriving themselves of gasoline, planes, transportation and schooling--and for what?
Don Quixote had more sense, and Bernie M was a more honest accountant.
But before we succumb to mindless French bashing, let's take a brief world tour.
Greece and Ireland are whiskers from default.
And the USA, self-reliant, pay-your-own way, the buck-stops-here, anti-Comniss USA, is well, bankrupt beyond belief.
US municipalities from coast to coast HAVING BEEN DOLING OUT THE CANDY at a rate to make a French CGT activitist green with envy.
French cops retire at 50? Well so does the LAPD! But with even more!
Full health benefits, lump sum payments for untaken leave, and 3% inflation index, bring estimated annual costs per man in blue to $180,000.
For years we ants of capitalization mocked the grasshoppers of repartition.
And today?
A woeful article in this week's Economist shows in three devastating charts the gap between assets and liabilities. Our US civil servant pensions aren't any better funded than the French! (And that's saying something because the French have set NOTHING aside at all.)
Read it and weep, my friends. We might as well join the French in the streets out of pure despair. At least we could sing some songs and enjoy a nice stroll n the rain.
A Gold Plated Burden, The Economist
