In true demagogic fashion, a relatively unknown socialist in France has captured the fancy of the people by promising exactly what they want to hear, namely, to solve the economic crisis without hardship. And many in Greece have fallen for that trap as well, although there are disturbing signs of extremism in that country that I will deal with in a subsequent post.
But in France they are saying non to austerity but oui to "growth." Has anybody explained exactly what this growth is to consist of? Sound a bit like "hope and change?" Yes, hope springs eternal and people keep wanting to believe that you can get something for nothing, that you can just hit the reset button and all will be well.
What foolishness!
It is sad that some people simply aren't capable of learning that socialism doesn't work in the long run. You can print money in the short run, you can rob Peter to pay Paul, but eventually debt, inflation and lack of investment will catch up with you. As Maggie Thatcher so brilliantly put it, "Socialism works great until you run out of other people's money."
France is now in for a period of decay and decline, not that it was any sort of rising star in the global economic firmament in the first place, but compared to Spain and Greece it must seem like an economic powerhouse.
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