France's Appetite for 'Magic Money' Has Turned into a Debt Bomb

France's Appetite for 'Magic Money' Has Turned into a Debt Bomb(wsj.com)

10 points by donsupreme 4 hours ago | 3 comments

If you write here about the fact that France's GDP is nearly 70% made of public spending you get downvoted into oblivion.

Maybe that an article from the WSJ is going to get more respect?

France is nearly a planned economy. Public spending are through the roof, the primary deficit is plain bonkers and at this point it's likely that at some point the IMF is going to take over.

France is one of those countries where public servants are planted into the ground and as a result taxes do grow. France has something like 420 different taxes: seven times more than Germany.

The only word french politicians can say is "tax".

And basically the only public services that do work correctly are those related to... Collecting taxes.

And now that the problem is getting huge, french politicians have the solution: more taxes (I'm not kidding).

This time, believe french politicians, it's going to work!

n_e 1 hour ago | |

> If you write here about the fact that France's GDP is nearly 70% made of public spending you get downvoted into oblivion.

Maybe because it's false, or at least contradicted by the most popular sources?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_France says 57% in the infobox

scotty79 2 hours ago | |

> France's GDP is nearly 70% made of public spending

Isn't that the statistical quirk caused by the fact that France has many state owned large corporations that do the spending?