As most people know, unless your living in a cave thinking World War II is still going on, France recently voted no against accepting the European Union Constitution. Many analysts and the clueless MSM are now trying to figure out the impact of this on the rest of the EU and what the future might hold for France. On one end of the spectrum, you have the thought that this is simply a vote against French President Chirac and the French people will come to their collective senses and approve the EU Constitution in a few years when a re-vote is held. The other end of opinion is that France has sealed its death warrant as a nation and will ultimately bring Europe down with it.
Here is how I see this non-vote going down. The French, regardless of how pissed they are at Chirac, are now firmly on the path to isolationism and as history has shown repeatedly, that is not good for anyone. France has suffered from double digit unemployment for quite a few years, in fact I can’t remember the last time their unemployment numbers were under 10%, I am sure someone will correct me. The combination of unemployment and decreasing birth rates has lead to an ever increasing need for immigrants to do the jobs that Frenchmen and women has previously held. Part of the problem with increasing immigration to France is that the French are snobs and racists, thus the immigrants that were welcomed for the labor they could provide but were never accepted into French society and did not assimilate to their new country.
The France of old, the country that helped us back during our revolution and shared our ideals of freedom and liberty, is dying a slow death and has since the end of the Second World War. The French now live in two separate countries, the Old France that is disappearing right before our eyes and the New France, which is made up of native French who do not feel any debt to the United States or Europe; the new Frenchman who has immigrated to France and made a home yet rejects the very idea of being French. It is the influx of immigrants who want nothing to do with the France of old that will turn France in to the first peacefully conquered European country and it will be Muslim.
Given that France cannot compete in the world marketplace, today the path of isolationism chosen by her people does not bode well for her future as a nation. In fact had the French passed the EU Constitution it very well could have given a boast to the French economy with just the small price of scrapping the 35-hour workweek and curtailed what has become Europe’s most generous welfare system. The French would have no part of a dismantling of their world famous entitlement system that has served generations of, dare I say lazy, French. Here is America, the model of an efficient workforce; 40 hours are considered the bare minimum for any full-time job. In fact, if one wants to get ahead and even be successful, 40 hours may only be a number since most work upwards of 60 or more hours a week.
I would say with a heavy heart that France is a lost cause and surprisingly I think a great number of French citizens would agree. Whether we like or dislike them, France as an ally is a far better thing then an openly hostile and nuclear-armed adversary in the center of Europe. That being said the rest of Europe is quite bright but not in the way envisioned by the writers of the EU Constitution. Europe will never rise to the political or economic level of the United States, or China. Europe will continue to serve as a valuable ally to the United States and in the very near future join the United States to serve as a counter to the rising ambitions of China. The economies of Europe will be forced to adapt to compete against the rise of China and other Asian countries as well as the United States and France would have just been a drag on the collective European economy. Europe will be just fine but I foresee some dark days ahead for France, especially when they wake up one day and realize that Europe and the rest of the world’s “give a damn is busted” when it comes to France. C’est la vie.
No comments:
Post a Comment