[tasogare]

There're a bunch of corrupted inviduals with no counter power to keep them in check. No decisions are made for the benefit of the French people since a long time, every law passed is either to augment their power, rise taxes (already world top 1 or 2 depending on the year) or to the benefit their friends owning private companies. Of course technology freedom will suffer from this as well.

[TacticalCoder]

> ... or to the benefit their friends owning private companies.

Yup this one in France is really a big problem. The public sector spendings officially represents something like 58.1% of the french GDP (official "Insee" numbers from 2023, for 2022)... France is not far from a planned economy and, unsurprisingly, it's a particularly harsh environment for real small private SMEs (i.e. those without friends at the state) and for entrepreneurs, for they're getting trounced by taxes.

And that gigantic state (percentage wise of the GDP, not on the world stage) still cannot prevent days of riots and drug-dealers from ruling the streets (like in the city of Marseille).

A deeply corrupt state where public servants are planted so that taxes can grow and, in return, the people don't even get safe streets.

But all is fine and well for these corrupt politicians because soon they'll be able to prevent comments such as yours or mine from being read by anyone.

[FrenchDevRemote]

France is really far from a planned economy.

Marseille's worst neighborhoods are really chill compared to the bad parts of any American city.

The streets are pretty safe.

Your comment is kinda ridiculous, stop watching TV.

Yeah there are lot of taxes, but those taxes come in handy when you can get 2 years of unemployment benefits when starting a company. Or when you know, get a cancer that would cost a few millions to treat.

[heretohelp232]

In Marseille, 68 shootings and 30 deaths in six months. There are worse cities in America, but not many.

https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2023/08/17/a-marseill...

[sudosysgen]

There are many, many, many worse cities in the US. That's a homicide rate of 3.75/100'000, which is lower than the US average of 4.9/100'000 : most US cities have worse homicide rates than Marseille. If Marseille was a US city, it would be the 3rd or 4th city with a population over 1 million with the lowest homicide rate.

[embwbam]

My girlfriend had a poorly aimed egg thrown at her late at night in Marseille on a kebab run for wearing a short skirt in a Muslim neighborhood. Seems pretty rough to me!

[sudosysgen]

You can find far worse anecdotes for any large US city.

[FrenchDevRemote]

Which neighborhood/district? I don't know what you mean by muslim neighborhood. Most of the city is really multicultural.

[ever1]

source: trust me bro

[micadep]

France is not a planned economy in the Soviet Union style, and we are in a privatisation trend. But the state still has a huge role in the economy and a history of interventionism in the private sector. More than most European countries.

I have no knowledge of the worst American cities, but saying that Marseille's worst neighborhoods are "chill" and "The streets are pretty safe" is pure madness.

[FrenchDevRemote]

I grew up in Marseille worst neighborhoods.

There are dozens of worst places around SF, LA, NYC, Chicago. There are no crackheads in Marseille. 100x less guns than in any American city.

[anthk]

This. In Spain, the Marseille's counterpark (shitty urban black hole) would be the 3000 viviendas (3000 homes) in Seville, or maybe some barrack based 'hood in Madrid far in the downtown.

And even with that, I would be safer if I kept a low profile with my head down and by not getting into troubles and by avoiding some taverns. Try that at the worst places of any big city in the US.

[Slava_Propanei]

If Frances streets are any safer, it is due to a less retarded population and not due to any successes by Le goubernement.

Of course, France is striving to import a more retarded and dangerous populace as quickly as possible, so who knows who will win that contest.

[WeylandYutani]

France has always been pretty bad at running an economy.

Ofcourse for the rest of Europe this is a good thing- French military ambitions have been consistently sabotaged by this oversight. Good military, brilliant engineers and capable bureaucrats but terrible merchants. And wars are won on the stock market.

[Yoric]

I'm not so sure about that.

For one thing, France is and remains one of the richest countries in the world. For a second thing, I seem to remember that France is currently outperforming both Germany and the UK (I read this in both German and British newspapers, but I don't remember the details).

Is it perfect? Far from it. But French bashing feels pretty counter-productive.

[ever1]

They are so terrible that they manage to get the 2nd place in arms export... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/13/france-challen...

[bombolo]

> Ofcourse for the rest of Europe this is a good thing

For the kings sure… for the people much less.

Imagine england being defeated and india being free of colonialism.

[pmontra]

Almost no part of the world was free from European colonialism. France was one of the largest colonial powers. If England lost to France maybe India would be speaking French instead of English now.

[bombolo]

And we can all agree that french revolution values are much better than whatever crap the rest of europe was pushing?

[pmontra]

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité: yes. What actually happened, the Terror and an Emperor: no.

[anthk]

>Marseille

The US has Detroid, LA gangs, SF with the streets filled with homeless people...

[pb7]

There are more homeless per capita in Paris than in SF.

[FirmwareBurner]

>No decisions are made for the benefit of the French people since a long time, every law passed is either to augment their power, rise taxes or to the benefit their friends owning private companies.

Same in Germany as well. The country long stopped caring for its people and mainly operates as a vehicle for german industrial interests to make money.

>There're a bunch of corrupted inviduals with no counter power to keep them in check.

The guillotine has proven this to be incorect. Separating their heads from their bodies helps keep rulers unable to perform further acts of corruption.

[rvnx]

Well if majority votes for them, it's important to respect the choice of the voters, even if you don't like their choice because you have other interests that you want to defend.

The opposition in France are far from being angels, it's very similar to Democrats vs Republican situation in France (except Gauche vs Droite).

[binary132]

What limits are you willing to place on this? Majorities can and do vote for monsters.

[AnthonyMouse]

Not only that, it's common to have a ballot that only presents a choice between two monsters. It's your fault if you vote for one and it's your fault if you stay home. Maybe the problem is systemic?

Checks and balances that get eroded during populist waves, stay that way when the monster comes.