Allons enfants de la Patrie, le jour de gloire est arrivé! If... (cleppe.be)
Nicolas Sarkozy has been elected with 53% of the votes last weekend as President of the French Republic. Although there are still elections coming up on 10 and 17 june in which he has to gain a parlementary majority, with the risk of becoming a lame duck when he loses, it appears clear what Nicolas must do to get France back on track:
1. Restore Law and Order
Even if one is a staunch anarcho-capitalist and one disapproves of the state doing anything, one should still be in favour of someone bringing law and order. It is clear that the current situation in France is not sustainable, as last year a list was published by French police of 751 "zones urbaines sensibles" (ZUS, or sensitive urban areas) which are no longer under the control of the authorities.
2 Reduce taxes
With 45,8 % of wealth being taken by the French State, this level is unacceptably high from the standpoint of human rights, of which property rights clearly are one of the most fundamental.
3 Privatise “National Champions”
In order to cover the massive reduction in taxes, one might need some money, and the most obvious way to get money is to sell your property. So, Nicolas, go ahead and start selling your “national champions”: the monopolistic electric utility EDF (87 percent government-owned) and natural gas utility Gaz de France (34 percent government-owned) are the first obvious candidates, but I’m sure you’ll be able to find more.
4 Cut the Government
How to get even more money for your massive tax decreases? Cut the government! Where to cut? Everywhere and anywhere, except maybe in providing the vital services the State still should offer: police and justice. Honourable mentioning: cut the CAP. Now. Fully.
5 Deregulate the Economy
Not only in the field of labour law, but in virtually every field that the government has its ugly foot between the door. The French bureaucrats have done it back in 1985 for the banking sector. Let’s do it again, because the banking deregulation was of great success, as you can read here.
6 Privatise Education
“In France, everybody can go to university, without paying anything.” Well, don’t forget then that Higher education is divided into Business and Engineer Schools at the one hand and Universities at the other. You can guess which are the free ones and which are the best ones… In other words: if you want a quality degree (HEC, Science Po), you have to pay for the degree and for the taxes that keep old, bureaucratic, low quality universities in place. If you want to start working right away, you have to pay taxes for those universities as well. So, Nicolas, do as Tony Blair: raise fees for students at universities, but then don’t forget to lower taxes drastically of course, so they can have a cheap loan. This makes professors more responsible, and students more motivated.
And what about the poor? The authoritative OECD study on education (called “PISA”) debunked some common myths about education. "Socialized economies do not guarantee an equitable distribution of education. In countries such as Germany, France and Belgium, the parents' socio-economic background has a much greater impact on the student's performance than in capitalist America”, as the WSJ comments on PISA 2003.
Nicolas, this shows the “democratisation of education” has failed. It might have made things worse, when one thinks of the middle class French family that cannot let their children go to a GOOD university, because they have to pay taxes for the worthless bad universities.
7 Abolish all tariffs
Less tariffs means more competition on your market. This drives prices down, and that is good for customers. Just imagine we would forbid or hamper Samsung, Microsoft and Nike to enter our markets? It would make Nokia, Siemens and Adidas more expensive and less qualitative. Well, let’s welcome Chinese cars, Brasilian corn and skilled third world people (through green cards).
8 Integrate Foreigners and poor people by eliminating the welfare state
Integrate foreigners and poor people in the economy by scrapping all incentives that keep them into unemployment: lower taxes, abolish regulation, reduce social housing (privatise those GDR flats) , reduce child allowances, … If you think they will all fall into despair, well, keep a minimum social safety net. Reality will prove they won’t need it. They want to work, but the system prevents them to.
9 Keep your hands off Trichet!
Nicolas, don’t touch Jean-Claude and his euro. We don’t trust Jean-Claude of governing our money with his “one size fits none” - interest rate, but we certainly don’t trust you. Anyway, Nicolas, the Germans were maybe so foolish to let their currency be replaced by a euro and ECB that resembles the Bundesbank, they will definitely not let you touch the euro. I know you want to print euros, but that’s not how it works. Anyway, if you would propose that governments accept private money for payments to the government, we would all be on your side.
10 Make institutional change happen, but decentralise, not centralise
Nicolas, France has great people, food and culture, but its State is only something that humanity should be ashamed of. However, let’s not start complaining about the past but rather look to a confident future. A future where France will be split up, in order to be replaced by a web of privatised gated communities, a future where the European Union becomes not a superstate with super bureaucrats, but a treaty negotiating platform where free trade treaties are being negotiated among governments, companies and individuals. You can start with all that, allowing gated communities, decentralising the French state and its health care systems, making Corsica, Bretagne, Pays Basque and Flandre independent and stopping the European superstate.
posted by Pieter Cleppe @ 15:26
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Nicolas Sarkozy says that he admires the United States and its social-economic system. So, does Sarkozy also admire the social inequality, social exclusion and poverty of the United States, as well? The American social economic system is a system that produces poverty and social exclusion – it promotes unchecked corporate activities and inequalities - and this undermines social cohesion. Social cohesion and social inclusion are the things that prevent social disorder. These things have been rightfully identified by Europe as preventing crime and promoting civility.
I do not find it surprising that the national right wing talk show hosts, neo-cons with microphones that unabashedly defend Bush’s polices here in America, are singing the praises of Nicolas Sarkozy as “another Ronald Reagan.” While we know that there are more political, social and European level constraints on Sarkozy’ ambitions, never-the-less the introduction of American conservative political ideology, which includes the notions that “haves v. have-nots and that some people (especially the poor, homeless, minorities) are “worthless garbage” - is dangerous to France and Europe as a whole.
Europeans need a crash education (NOW!) into the true meaning of American conservative political ideology, which is foreign and polar opposite to the European social and economic system of social market economy, social inclusion and controlled business competition. While Europeans – and this Europhile American – and excited by Sarkozy’s embrace of the revival of the constitutional treaty – Europeans should be very, very weary of just what Sarkozy is advocating.
Where do you get this notion that American schools are so great? American schools and parts of American cities are small-scale, armed conflict zones. According to the UNICEF survey of child well-l-being, American and British children are among the worst off in the world in terms of their well-being and social welfare. European children, especially in the Netherlands, are better of, by far, than children in other parts of the world. Belgium ranks as among the best in the world. The cause is social inequality and Europe, including Belgium, must work to maintain the welfare states that insure child well-being. I don’t quite understand why your site continues to propose that Europe adapt self –destructive and damaging policies, such as American style economic system.
Anything less, or any attempt to become like the US/UK, places Europe at risk.
“UK is accused of failing children”
14 February 2007
“One of the report's authors told the BBC that under-investment and a "dog-eat-dog" society were to blame for Britain's poor performance.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6359363.stm
UNICEF : Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well-being in Rich Countries: http://www.unicef.org/media/files/ChildPovertyReport.pdf
For anyone who stil doubts that the American education system and most mass media preach self-hatred and ideology, it suffices to read 'eslaporte'. All the standard clichees, platitudes and media mantras are there. And some of the assertions are delivered with an air of such ridiculous 'certainty' and supersimplification, that one truly must be concerned about contemporary western education of 'lawyers'.
Let's take only 2 examples of naivete and self-hatred:
-- "The American system PRODUCES poverty and social exclusion".
One can see the marxist professoriat's indoctrination right there, and the refusal to embrace empiricism.
-- "...the American conservative political ideology includes the notion....that some people are "garbage"...etc...".
Mon Dieu! The conclusion must be obvious. The educational system does no longer produces independent thinkers, who can make complicated distinctions, and put things in proper perspectives, both historical and geographic. Rather, it produces parrots who parrot ideological mantras of perverse self-hatred.
@eslaporte:
- concerning your education claim: I am proposing American style reform for higher education, not for grade schools etc. Every international survey will make clear to you the quality of American higher education (and the PISA reform makes clear that it is also more social, contrary to what some people claim). The US grade school system is probably not a good example, as free choice of school is not respected in it (unlike Belgium, where quality is indeed good, but threatened).
- concerning your "haves v. have nots?" claim: if you're a "have not " in the US, you'll have a much bigger chance of moving to higher social levels than in continental Europe. America is built on an ideology of individualism, Western Europe has always been threatened by Continental-style despotism, as in Russia and China. Socialism and social democracy are rooted in that evil tradition of despotism.
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