This is too awesome to pass up. Bill Saporito on “How We Became the United States of France.“
September 22, 2008
We are all French now.
Posted by Carl Oberg under economics | Tags: Bush, France, government, regulation, satire, US |[2] Comments
[2] Comments
September 22, 2008 at 8:30 am
As an American living in France I indeed found Saporito’s article to be quite a good read and quite funny. France’s weird sort of socialist-capitalist chimera does often make for stange bed-partners (please excuse me while I mix my metaphors), but what the have understood is that “rugged individualism” à l’américaine can only go so far, and, by its very nature, it certainly cannot improve the global quality of life for all American citizens. But–and this is the beautiful irony of it all–everything is conected. if the society as a whole is not assured the basics of dignified life, sooner or later it is going to drag down all the “American success stories” as it sinks. And no one, but no one, not even Fanny Mae or Freddie Mac, not even Merrel Lynch or AIG, can escape this dynamic of interdependence forever.
I’m certainly not saying that France is the model to follow for the future (although the European Union might very well be), but they do understand that sometimes the Captain has to better distribute the weight around the boat to keep it from sinking.
A.K.A., a little bit of fiscal rationality can go a long way. You might have to settle for just “stinking rich” instead of “dirty stinking rich”, but, c’est la vie.
September 30, 2008 at 11:00 am
You’re right – it is awesome! Wish _we_ were that smart.
Toujours gai!