Flashback:
Back in May, we got that unique opportunity to see into one possible future by looking at France, past and present.
Before the French elections a wonderfully analytical piece done by The Telegraph we can see where France went wrong, the disaster it has wrought throughout the country and Sarkozy's plan change the course his country has been heading toward.
It rarely happens to a country that a clear opportunity is presented to it to save itself from ruin. Only once since the war has it happened to Britain, in 1979, when the people realised that the end of the road had been reached with the consensus that had prevailed since the Second World War, and it was time to start again on a different basis. Tomorrow, France can choose to have its 1979.
As I go through the article here with you, and show you the path that led to Frances near ruination, please notice the portions I put in bold and compare it to the liberal agenda of our own Democrats and the policies they are pitching to Americans around our country.France's post-war rulers took the view that, to heal the wounds of 1940-44, they had to govern for all the French, not merely for a particular group within France.
What that has effectively meant is that the majority of French are bought off with a lavish welfare state and jobs on the public payroll, financed by a minority who pay high taxes for the privilege of living in France. That deal, however, is almost completely broken. Business has had enough of bankrolling bureaucracy and funding feather-bedding. Well-known French individuals, such as the popular singer and actor Johnny Hallyday, have sundered their ties with the country and gone to live abroad because of the penal wealth tax, which led to Hallyday complaining that he now has to send two thirds of his annual income to the French treasury.
Any of this looking familiar? (Hint: Raising taxes, especially for the rich and those that are responsible for employing hundreds of thousands of workers)
Unlike in Britain, small businesses are not engines of growth, because bureaucracy and high taxes make it very hard for them to grow. In some parts of France the signs of decay are becoming ever more obvious: shops boarded up in villages in the Dordogne, property not selling except perhaps to foreigners, and resentment about freeloaders, especially if they are perceived to be immigrants. France has numerous successful multinationals, and every French town has scores of one-man bands (notably retailers), but there is less and less in between.
The other factor that makes it so hard for energetic and enterprising French people to prosper is that they are usually prevented by law from working more than 35 hours a week. This law, brought in under the socialist government of Lionel Jospin, is now widely condemned, even by some supporters of Miss Royal, for the effect it has had on suppressing growth, living standards, wealth creation and productivity.
Are you beginning to see a pattern, the "window", if you will, into our future should we decide to adopt our democrats vision and socialist agenda?
The present situation, where 52 per cent of France's GDP is spent in the public sector (against 42 per cent of ours, which itself is too high) is unsustainable. It might well provide an opportunity in 2012 for the FN, who might feed on the greater social and economic problems that a hard five years of corrosive, introspective, un-radical and profligate Left-wing government would bring. But the state France would be in by then, even further detached from economic realities that are now commonplace for the rest of Europe, hardly bears thinking about.
[...]
This could well mean a summer of unrest in France. But as the alternative would appear to be France being left further and further behind the rest of the developed world, perhaps a fight now is preferable to complete ruin later. By tomorrow night we shall know how brave the French are prepared to be.
We now know the French were brave and understood the road to ruin they have been on and elected change.
We know now, France understood that the road to Utopia promised by the socialists had only led them to hell and they voted for Nicolas Sarkozy for change.
Jump forward to today, we get a second chance to look into our future if we follow a socialist course and see where it has led those that have followed it.
The papers today ask why 400,000 left the Uk last year to live and work somewhere else. I would have thought the answer was obvious.
They’ve had enough.
We see people comment here that say, "but we should follow the rules of the UN", lets look to the UK and why people are leaving there enmasse.
We are told we have to love the EU and accept its constitution, after the promised of a referendum in order to win a General election. Many of us see the EU as a hostile bureaucracy, tying us up in ever more rules and regulations. We are not xenophobes - most of us like our continent and appreciate its range of cultures, languages and cuisines. We just do not want to be governed by a bunch of bureaucrats who think they have to regulate every aspect of our increasingly complex lives and who we cannot sack via an election.
What can they teach us about HillaryCare or Government subsidized Health care for all?
We are told by the government that our lifestyles are wrong. As the Health Service grapples with its inability to keep hospitals clean and infection free the government blames us for being ill in the first place. People are told they are too fat, they eat the wrong foods,and they drink too much. The government encourages a debate criticising “middle class” lifestyles. Maybe it’s a prelude to a crisps tax or a further increase in alcohol duty.
What can the mass exodus of people leaving the UK tell us about "progressive taxation"? (Example, Rangel's bright massive tax increase plan as well as a tax hike being tied to almost every bill the Democrats try to ram through Congress/Senate)
The Democrats' political calculations will prevent the more controversial elements of Rangel's tax plan from coming to a vote this year. Yet many of the themes it embraces --revenue neutrality, AMT repeal, corporate tax competitiveness and progressive tax increases--may become law if the Democrats capture the White House in 2008.
Now the UK example of where that type of thinking leads a country:
If we are foolish enough to make some honest money then the tax collectors descend. The government only wants to know us when they are out to take our cash. The Revenue and Customs have become much more aggressive and in some cases unfair, as this greedy government raids us time and again to pay for their army of helpers and advisers, to swell their drinks cabinets and pay their first class airline tickets as they fly round the world lecturing the rest of us on the need to travel less.
How about the accusations any of us that come out strongly to enforce our laws and secure our borders and deport those here illegally. They call us racists and xenophobes....
Back to the example from the UK:
We are not allowed to make comments on immigration for fear of a false accusation of racism. We are discouraged from criticisng the EU for fear of being called xenophobes.
Those are simply a few quick glances of the Democratic Utopia they keep promising with their tax hikes and wanting to accommodate or grant amnesty to illegal aliens or the infamous LOST.
He ends his piece with this:
If you still can’t figure out why so many people are leaving, then you are not cut out to be a politician. You are simply, hopelessly and comprehensively out of touch. If you can, then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT
This is twice we have seen a glimpse into what the Democratic Utopia would hold in store for us.
Not as pretty as they make it out to be, now is it?
.