John Metzler Archive

How much do Americans really want to learn from the French?

So when the center-right government of Nicolas Sarkozy dared to do the necessary; namely raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, the Citizens of the Republic took to the barricades, or at least to marching on the beautiful boulevards of Paris and other French cities in protest. General strikes have gripped France over retirement.

Just imagine having to work an extra two years? Inhuman! Millions have taken to the streets in Manifestations Manifs, to protest the harshness of enduring the 35 hour work week an additional two years. Where are the UN human rights monitors when you need them?

Entitlements form part of a near sacred pact between the people and the French State. Woe to any government who tries to tinker with or even timidly change any of these benefits. Jacques Chirac tried years ago and quickly backed off. But now facing massive government deficits and the millstone of entitlement spending, Sarkozy has tried to tackle, or better judiciously trim, the unsustainable elements of the social-welfare state. Le Point the newsmagazine headlined, “The Peasant Uprising Against Sarkozy.”

The Manifs, while huge, mostly have been in good nature; with the exception of some provoked violence in suburbs and Lyon. Public sector unions have been joined by oil refinery workers and literally tried to shut down France. To a degree they have succeeded, and most certainly have damaged this year’s economic growth comeback. Students some as young as 12 years old are marching on the streets frightfully worried about at what age they will have to retire!! Get real, it’s called a day off from school, nice Autumn weather, and the chance to relive the days 1968 (sic).

While most of the marchers are decent people who have been frightened by the impending budget cuts, but often manipulated by the opposition Socialist Party and a blizzard of hard-left organizations. The foreign media is naively blind to the predominance of the CGT unions as a leading force behind many of the protests. CGT was the traditional communist union confederation until the 1990’s; the union remains well organized, hyper-motivated, and focused at stopping Sarkozy’s even tepid reforms.

Now the government has acted and the French Senate has passed the legislation allowing the two years before retirement. But the battle is far from over. It’s simplistic to assume these protests and problems are something “over there” and a symptom of Gallic grouchiness.

When Alexis de Tocqueville visited the young American Republic in the 1830’s the visiting Frenchman was enchanted not only by the pursuit of freedoms but by the individuality and spirit of the American people. In his magnificent narrative “Democracy in America,” de Tocqueville’s message was that America was great for many reasons, but first and foremost its freedom and the individual pursuit of wealth and happiness.

De Tocqueville coming from a France which was and remains a very Statist country, no matter the government of left, right had discovered the American Republic as a refreshing alternative to chaotic barbarism of the French Revolution or the theatrical militarism of Napoleon. America presented an alternative offering individual opportunity.

Fast forward to 2010. What used to be called “American Exceptionalism” by scholar Seymour Martin Lipset, has evolved into what I deem, American Dependency. I do not mean our economic dependency on Middle East oil. Instead I refer to an entire dependency culture which has emerged across all classes, creeds and colors which looks to Washington “programs” as a panacea to every problem and donor to every need. The Middle-class has been especially seduced by the handouts. Much as the French are wedded to their entitlements and can recite their benefits as secular scripture, so too increasing number of Americans (especially the Yammercrats of the Left ) who look to the State as the solution, the benefactor, and the arbiter for all matters of commerce, culture and climate.

Naturally with government funding on every level comes the natural consequence of higher taxes, but well beyond this emerges the control. What properly defined America as a Federal Republic and land of checks and balances, has increasingly become a unitary state dispensing checks but also dispensing with the traditional balance and dialogue between Washington and the fifty states. The State in France, “ETAT” holds inordinate power but also controls privilege. Indeed there are many French lessons for America yet to learn.