Clan
Well, if we are going to go into unofficial numbers and vague generalities, we could say just about anything. What country in the world doesn’t have a disguised unemployment, including France? So we are to compare the official French numbers to some vague unofficial US numbers? This is a nonstarter.
The French version of Social Security is pay as you go. They have a major demographic problem–they are not producing enough children (future tax payers) to pay for the lavish social benefits. Demographic trends cannot be reversed in short order except via major social upheavels through massive immigration, which of course undercuts the whole notion of being “French”.
Yes, there are political choices in addition to economic ones, including the political choice by the French to have a small military and let the US cover them.
