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May 5, 2009
Exclusive: Sacre Bleu! Let's Talk About France (Part Two of Two)
As I mentioned previously, Americans have given the French more grief than they deserve in recent years. Although the United States could stand to learn a number of lessons from France, many Americans fail to understand that France has become an object lesson in how not to do most things. Rather than focus on a whole slough of issues, I'd like to focus on five: economic policy, social policy, health care, national security, and energy.
Many proponents of socialism hold France up as the gold standard of successful socialism. Ask yourself: what's the biggest French corporation? What brands of automobiles originate in France? What major innovation or invention has been France's greatest contribution to global commerce in recent memory? While France deserves credit for being the fifth largest economy in the world, it is somewhat telling that France falls behind two nations in particular: Japan, and Germany, the nations which lost World War II. Germany in particular has been under an economic strain for nearly two decades due to the cost of reunification with East Germany, a move that required West Germany to pour money into rebuilding the decaying former communist state. In comparison to Japan, France is roughly 50% larger in area, with around half the population to support; yet France's GDP is half that of Japan.
France's level of economic success comes despite high corporate and personal tax rates that discourage entrepreneurship and innovation. Many of those who have visited France will also have experienced one of the frequent industrial strikes that bring various sectors of the French work force to a screeching halt on a regular basis. While strikes such as January's massive general strike tend to receive attention from the press, typical French strikes have become so commonplace that international media ignore them altogether. French workers are known to strike without notice, for a variety of reasons – some strike on Mondays have been rumored to have been called for the singular reason of securing a three day weekend. In an era in which America's economic lifeblood, the automotive industry, is under increased scrutiny due in large part to the increasingly negative effect of the United Auto Workers union, France has become one of the world's great examples of the negative influence of unchecked union control of industry.
This brief discussion of the challenges of the French economy serves as an excellent transition point into a discussion of French social policies. While conditions for the native French population have remained relatively stable in recent years, France is facing increasing pressure from its growing immigrant community. Due in part to its economic standing and in large part to the end of the colonial era, France has become a magnet for immigration from former colonies such as Algeria and Morocco. While many of these are loyal and patriotic French citizens, many more – particularly the children of immigrants – are young, unemployed, and show no allegiance to France. Immigrant communities in France tend to be highly segregated. These young people in particular present a growing problem for the French government, as they represent a growing community that holds no philosophical allegiance to France, has no opportunity to work or succeed, and is restricted within confined geographic areas. This leaves this community ripe for radicalization, and has resulted in riots throughout France in 2005, and further rioting in Paris suburbs in 2007. This comes several years after the French government ended compulsory military service – an institution that had formerly served as the only widespread way of integrating immigrant and minority youth into French society and training them in marketable vocations. As a result, these immigrant minority youth now find themselves disconnected from French society at large, confined to government housing projects, with no opportunities for social or economic advancement. This is hardly an example for America to follow when dealing with its own minority and immigrant populations.
Another element of France that is frequently lauded is France's socialized health care. While France may be successful at providing a static level of health care for its citizens, one must recognize that such a system is entirely reliant upon things like generic pharmaceuticals and foreign medical research. France has ceased to be a dynamic source of innovation and improvement in the medical sector due to the requirement to focus nearly all state medical funding on treatments and overhead costs.
One prominent sign that the storied French health care system is not all that proponents of socialized medicine make it out to be comes in the form of two heat waves: one in France in 2003, and another in the northeast quarter of the United States in 2006. The French heat wave, which included seven days of temperatures in excess of 40° C (104° F) in some areas, killed nearly 15,000 people. The American heat wave of 2006, by comparison, had temperatures in some areas that reached 47° C (117° F). The recorded death toll from this heat wave was 225. While this is only one disparity between the American system and the socialized health care systems of France or the United Kingdom, plenty more examples exist.
Readers who have the opportunity to discuss this with someone from France, or the United Kingdom, or Canada, might be surprised at their horror stories. There are good reasons why patients who can afford to deliver their children or undergo high risk medical procedures do so at private hospitals in the United States, instead of in state-run hospitals in France. The United States could certainly stand to fix many dysfunctional elements of its health care system; however, such entitlement programs as Social Security and Medicare should serve as unequivocal reminders that when a nation puts any program in the hands of the same people who administer the postal service and the department of motor vehicles, the result will inevitably be a more expensive and less responsive system. Ask yourself: if you or a loved one were diagnosed with treatable cancer, would you really want to wait for a sluggish bureaucracy to treat you? Putting aside philosophical arguments by some about equality, and claims that health care has become a fundamental human right, America stands to lose a great deal from emulating French socialist medical care while gaining little or nothing to show for it.
One of the Internet's most famous jokes comes from typing the phrase "French military victories" into Google and clicking the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button – a sequence which will lead one to a website that outlines a long list of French military defeats. Irreverent though it may be, the information contained is relatively accurate. Despite a legacy of French victories throughout the 18th and 19enturies, France's only solid military accomplishments in the 20th century were achieved while supporting broad coalitions led by the United States. Many are familiar with the role that the United States played in coming to France's rescue from Germany in the World Wars. Fewer remember that the Vietnam War started in the 1950s as France's war in Indochina – a war that France lost despite its possession of superior technology, superior numbers, and superior training. The same happened several years later in Algeria, where terrorists and guerrillas defeated French forces on the home turf of the French Foreign Legion, eventually forcing a French withdrawal from territory that had been a veritable French Alaska for decades.
Since the fall of its colonial empire, France's only major military successes have been its contribution to the Persian Gulf War in 1990 and 1991, and the destruction of the air force of Cote d'Ivoire in 2005 – an operation that resulted in anti-French demonstrations, some of which compared Jacques Chirac to Osama bin Laden. France's contribution to Afghanistan has been underwhelming, and the death of ten brave French soldiers led to a parliamentary crisis over the continued presence of French forces in Afghanistan.
World War II established the aircraft carrier as the most crucial capital warship in any fleet well into the foreseeable future. France has had particular problems in recent years with their own aircraft carriers. France's former flagship, the Clemenceau, has turned into a toxic hot potato. The ship has been passed around from country to country as a safe location was sought for the scrapping of the asbestos-laden ship (BBC, AFP, Times). France's current flagship, the Charles de Gaulle, has been a persistent problem for the French government. Notorious for leaking radiation resulting from the decision to use submarine nuclear reactors instead of specially designing reactors for an aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle was even forced to use propellers from retired warships when it was discovered that its own brand new propellers were all faulty.
In June of 2008, France announced a massive restructuring of its military (AP, BBC, Guardian, UPI), the most prominent aspect of which was the announcement that more than 50,000 military positions would be cut. This news was followed mere weeks later with a horrifying incident in which French troops accidentally shot 17 French civilians during a public demonstration of hostage rescue techniques when blanks were accidentally swapped out for live rounds – a poor demonstration of the level of discipline exercised by the average French soldier. Despite spending roughly the same amount of money on their respective military forces, the United Kingdom boasts two more aircraft carriers (that are more reliable than the Charles de Gaulle) and nearly 40 additional fighter aircraft. France, on the other hand, has more than forty thousand additional troops, few of whom have seen combat, and nearly none of whom have seen the kind of combat that their British and American counterparts have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This is not to say that the French military is completely impotent. French experience fighting insurgencies has served as recent study material for Coalition forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Several months ago, French President Nicolas Sarkozy also penned a deal with the United Arab Emirates allowing for the creation of a French outpost, which will make France the only nation other than the United States to have a forward position in the Persian Gulf. France has also taken a leading role in fighting Somali pirates (BBC, Times, Times, BBC), particularly in cases where pirates took French citizens hostage. However, years of de-militarization have made France a prime discussion point when analysts debate whether or not Europe is capable of defending itself (Economist, AFP, AFP).
There is one major policy area in which the United States would do well to emulate France: energy policy. While the United States generates most of its electricity using fossil fuels, a noteworthy majority of French electricity is produced by a number of nuclear energy stations. These stations are not only efficient and well regulated; they also produce no greenhouse gas emissions. Virtually no reason exists why America should not follow the French example by building nuclear stations as a compromise measure between environmentalists, consumers, and industrialists. France has even taken the lead in sharing this technology with other selected nations – and France has been more selective with its customers since the 1981 Israeli bombing of the Osirak reactor outside Baghdad.
America is currently facing its most difficult days in decades, and a natural human reaction to difficult times is to look over the proverbial fence to see the grass on the other side. From a distance, France may appear to be an attractive model for some. After all, who can argue with Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité? Unfortunately, a closer examination of the French model reveals that it is not all that proponents of socialism and perpetual diplomacy make it out to be. As such, America would do well to learn from France's mistakes, rather than emulate them.
Many proponents of socialism hold France up as the gold standard of successful socialism. Ask yourself: what's the biggest French corporation? What brands of automobiles originate in France? What major innovation or invention has been France's greatest contribution to global commerce in recent memory? While France deserves credit for being the fifth largest economy in the world, it is somewhat telling that France falls behind two nations in particular: Japan, and Germany, the nations which lost World War II. Germany in particular has been under an economic strain for nearly two decades due to the cost of reunification with East Germany, a move that required West Germany to pour money into rebuilding the decaying former communist state. In comparison to Japan, France is roughly 50% larger in area, with around half the population to support; yet France's GDP is half that of Japan.
France's level of economic success comes despite high corporate and personal tax rates that discourage entrepreneurship and innovation. Many of those who have visited France will also have experienced one of the frequent industrial strikes that bring various sectors of the French work force to a screeching halt on a regular basis. While strikes such as January's massive general strike tend to receive attention from the press, typical French strikes have become so commonplace that international media ignore them altogether. French workers are known to strike without notice, for a variety of reasons – some strike on Mondays have been rumored to have been called for the singular reason of securing a three day weekend. In an era in which America's economic lifeblood, the automotive industry, is under increased scrutiny due in large part to the increasingly negative effect of the United Auto Workers union, France has become one of the world's great examples of the negative influence of unchecked union control of industry.
This brief discussion of the challenges of the French economy serves as an excellent transition point into a discussion of French social policies. While conditions for the native French population have remained relatively stable in recent years, France is facing increasing pressure from its growing immigrant community. Due in part to its economic standing and in large part to the end of the colonial era, France has become a magnet for immigration from former colonies such as Algeria and Morocco. While many of these are loyal and patriotic French citizens, many more – particularly the children of immigrants – are young, unemployed, and show no allegiance to France. Immigrant communities in France tend to be highly segregated. These young people in particular present a growing problem for the French government, as they represent a growing community that holds no philosophical allegiance to France, has no opportunity to work or succeed, and is restricted within confined geographic areas. This leaves this community ripe for radicalization, and has resulted in riots throughout France in 2005, and further rioting in Paris suburbs in 2007. This comes several years after the French government ended compulsory military service – an institution that had formerly served as the only widespread way of integrating immigrant and minority youth into French society and training them in marketable vocations. As a result, these immigrant minority youth now find themselves disconnected from French society at large, confined to government housing projects, with no opportunities for social or economic advancement. This is hardly an example for America to follow when dealing with its own minority and immigrant populations.
Another element of France that is frequently lauded is France's socialized health care. While France may be successful at providing a static level of health care for its citizens, one must recognize that such a system is entirely reliant upon things like generic pharmaceuticals and foreign medical research. France has ceased to be a dynamic source of innovation and improvement in the medical sector due to the requirement to focus nearly all state medical funding on treatments and overhead costs.
One prominent sign that the storied French health care system is not all that proponents of socialized medicine make it out to be comes in the form of two heat waves: one in France in 2003, and another in the northeast quarter of the United States in 2006. The French heat wave, which included seven days of temperatures in excess of 40° C (104° F) in some areas, killed nearly 15,000 people. The American heat wave of 2006, by comparison, had temperatures in some areas that reached 47° C (117° F). The recorded death toll from this heat wave was 225. While this is only one disparity between the American system and the socialized health care systems of France or the United Kingdom, plenty more examples exist.
Readers who have the opportunity to discuss this with someone from France, or the United Kingdom, or Canada, might be surprised at their horror stories. There are good reasons why patients who can afford to deliver their children or undergo high risk medical procedures do so at private hospitals in the United States, instead of in state-run hospitals in France. The United States could certainly stand to fix many dysfunctional elements of its health care system; however, such entitlement programs as Social Security and Medicare should serve as unequivocal reminders that when a nation puts any program in the hands of the same people who administer the postal service and the department of motor vehicles, the result will inevitably be a more expensive and less responsive system. Ask yourself: if you or a loved one were diagnosed with treatable cancer, would you really want to wait for a sluggish bureaucracy to treat you? Putting aside philosophical arguments by some about equality, and claims that health care has become a fundamental human right, America stands to lose a great deal from emulating French socialist medical care while gaining little or nothing to show for it.
One of the Internet's most famous jokes comes from typing the phrase "French military victories" into Google and clicking the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button – a sequence which will lead one to a website that outlines a long list of French military defeats. Irreverent though it may be, the information contained is relatively accurate. Despite a legacy of French victories throughout the 18th and 19enturies, France's only solid military accomplishments in the 20th century were achieved while supporting broad coalitions led by the United States. Many are familiar with the role that the United States played in coming to France's rescue from Germany in the World Wars. Fewer remember that the Vietnam War started in the 1950s as France's war in Indochina – a war that France lost despite its possession of superior technology, superior numbers, and superior training. The same happened several years later in Algeria, where terrorists and guerrillas defeated French forces on the home turf of the French Foreign Legion, eventually forcing a French withdrawal from territory that had been a veritable French Alaska for decades.
Since the fall of its colonial empire, France's only major military successes have been its contribution to the Persian Gulf War in 1990 and 1991, and the destruction of the air force of Cote d'Ivoire in 2005 – an operation that resulted in anti-French demonstrations, some of which compared Jacques Chirac to Osama bin Laden. France's contribution to Afghanistan has been underwhelming, and the death of ten brave French soldiers led to a parliamentary crisis over the continued presence of French forces in Afghanistan.
World War II established the aircraft carrier as the most crucial capital warship in any fleet well into the foreseeable future. France has had particular problems in recent years with their own aircraft carriers. France's former flagship, the Clemenceau, has turned into a toxic hot potato. The ship has been passed around from country to country as a safe location was sought for the scrapping of the asbestos-laden ship (BBC, AFP, Times). France's current flagship, the Charles de Gaulle, has been a persistent problem for the French government. Notorious for leaking radiation resulting from the decision to use submarine nuclear reactors instead of specially designing reactors for an aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle was even forced to use propellers from retired warships when it was discovered that its own brand new propellers were all faulty.
In June of 2008, France announced a massive restructuring of its military (AP, BBC, Guardian, UPI), the most prominent aspect of which was the announcement that more than 50,000 military positions would be cut. This news was followed mere weeks later with a horrifying incident in which French troops accidentally shot 17 French civilians during a public demonstration of hostage rescue techniques when blanks were accidentally swapped out for live rounds – a poor demonstration of the level of discipline exercised by the average French soldier. Despite spending roughly the same amount of money on their respective military forces, the United Kingdom boasts two more aircraft carriers (that are more reliable than the Charles de Gaulle) and nearly 40 additional fighter aircraft. France, on the other hand, has more than forty thousand additional troops, few of whom have seen combat, and nearly none of whom have seen the kind of combat that their British and American counterparts have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This is not to say that the French military is completely impotent. French experience fighting insurgencies has served as recent study material for Coalition forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Several months ago, French President Nicolas Sarkozy also penned a deal with the United Arab Emirates allowing for the creation of a French outpost, which will make France the only nation other than the United States to have a forward position in the Persian Gulf. France has also taken a leading role in fighting Somali pirates (BBC, Times, Times, BBC), particularly in cases where pirates took French citizens hostage. However, years of de-militarization have made France a prime discussion point when analysts debate whether or not Europe is capable of defending itself (Economist, AFP, AFP).
There is one major policy area in which the United States would do well to emulate France: energy policy. While the United States generates most of its electricity using fossil fuels, a noteworthy majority of French electricity is produced by a number of nuclear energy stations. These stations are not only efficient and well regulated; they also produce no greenhouse gas emissions. Virtually no reason exists why America should not follow the French example by building nuclear stations as a compromise measure between environmentalists, consumers, and industrialists. France has even taken the lead in sharing this technology with other selected nations – and France has been more selective with its customers since the 1981 Israeli bombing of the Osirak reactor outside Baghdad.
America is currently facing its most difficult days in decades, and a natural human reaction to difficult times is to look over the proverbial fence to see the grass on the other side. From a distance, France may appear to be an attractive model for some. After all, who can argue with Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité? Unfortunately, a closer examination of the French model reveals that it is not all that proponents of socialism and perpetual diplomacy make it out to be. As such, America would do well to learn from France's mistakes, rather than emulate them.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Tom Ordeman, Jr. is a technical writer for a major defense contractor in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Feedback:
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