If you aren’t watching what’s happening in France, Italy and across the EU, you should, and don’t look away or pretend it can’t happen where you live. France built an immigration system that allowed nearly unlimited poorly vetted migration. They overwhelmingly refuse to deport even those who come there illegally and pose a risk to citizens or infrastructure, and they did little about the domestic radicalization that followed. Their left-wing radicals gladly partner with the religious radicals coming in. They do this everywhere (and are of course being used, AKA useful idiots).
We have written extensively about the civilizationally suicidal belief of socialism (a left wing radical belief), if it’s not something that keeps you up at night, it should be. Even a casual awareness of history illustrates why. And, our youth are actively being poisoned via this reliably destructive and economically illiterate virus not only via TikTok but via our own academic institutions.
France presents an example of a more advanced socialist position than Americans are used to. It is a remarkable country with a proud history, and the concept of revolution is woven into its culture. But this one is clearly different if you simply open your eyes. It looks far less like the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and far more like the Arab Spring, and that’s where the danger lies. Like all socialists, they were more interested in lecturing the rest of the world than fixing problems at home. Now ordinary French citizens are paying the price, with businesses destroyed and public spaces in disarray. Many assume France will weather this season and emerge into spring, but they may be sleepwalking into a winter that lasts for decades, possibly even centuries. The riots will quiet down in the short term, but the underlying problems won't disappear, and more will recur. If left to continue and no corrective action is taken, wealth and talent will leave, the tax base will shrink, economic opportunities will deteriorate, and future generations will inherit an even more fractured country.
Over on Twitter/X, a financial friend points out something to be keenly aware of that most Americans continue to sleep on. I’d suggest reading it:
It took a year of me living abroad to really understand that most educated people in the US are living in a bubble. There is a lack of seriousness/willingness to dismiss any fears around the emergence of socialist ideals in America as it’s easier to call someone an alarmist boomer or say it’s just a problem for the 1% in big cities like NYC. My fear is that’s how things start. An increasingly alarming number of younger people & non-finance professionals I talk to think socialism has serious merit.
As someone who spends a lot of time in Paris, it’s extremely sad to see the riots & the damage they caused all over France. The worst part is the educated people who say even though this was not the *real* point of the protests, the conditions that precipitated it (inflation/lack of affordability, strained public resources etc) essentially guaranteed the outcome, ie “the ends justify the means”. Btw this is what socialist policies & unchecked globalism eventually descend into.
France is the blueprint for what a massive welfare state looks like. The overt results are what your algorithm is currently feeding you. The more pernicious, subtle effects are that kids in school are told there are limits to their ambitions. If you talk to French people, you come to realize that functional mediocrity is an acceptable baseline for them bc this is effectively what they were taught. This is obviously in sharp contrast to what makes America great. For those who think socialism has a place in the American political discourse, be careful what you wish for -- & keep in mind France is a bit smaller than the size of Texas & has 20% the population of the US.
France already spends roughly 57% of its GDP through government, with social spending around 30% of GDP. It has one of the most generous welfare systems of any country and supposedly the answer to their problems is just a bit more redistribution. Like giving a drug addict more supply, it only makes things worse. The tragedy is that rioting over inflation and the cost of living by burning stores and destroying businesses only makes both worse. Fiscal problems become social problems, which create more fiscal problems, and the cycle continues. The demand for “more” will never end.
This is coming to America if you let it. These people do not value civilization like you and I do, they are demoralized enough to join an orgiastic mob only interested in tearing things down. Everything is simply part of the revolution and to be cast aside in the name of “the cause” which has no respect for our culture and civilized norms.
The UK and the rest of Europe should take note. If they don’t wake up en masse and act with urgency, it risks losing something it may never get back. For people who live in France or any part of EU with conflict or degrowth, the question is simple: is it worth it to gamble your kid’s future on the hopes that one day things will somehow work themselves out? We obviously hope for a better outcome, but hope is not a strategy. We’ll find out in our lifetimes just how far parts of the EU will deteriorate, or if they can right the ship. In the meantime, it’s all genuinely sad to watch.
A big part of what makes America work is that our rich are largely self-made, and turnover is high. Harp on immigration all you want, but if in 50 years the richest people are still Bezos, Walton, Buffett, and Gates, with little turnover at the top, we'll have the same problems as France and Italy. Luckily, the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and Mellons aren't suffocating out country.
This has happened already in the US. I remember being told by county public health to remain in my house or I would have the local sheriff do a "wellness check" on me in the middle of COVID hysteria. Despite the public health risk I supposedly created, hundreds of people were allowed to rampage in the streets and pillage my community because a symbolic derelict was tragically killed by a cop more than a thousand miles away.