 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Right Time
Blocking the march of Jean-Marie Le Pen
[May 6, 2002] |
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
E-mail your letter to the editor
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
FRANCOIS MORI/AP
|
FACE OF PROTEST: A nurse faces two riot policemen in a hospital workers' protest in Paris |
|
 |
|
The Fight for Quality of Life |
 |
|
|
|
|
How long can the French continue to afford their excellent — and expensive — public services? |
|
|
|
|
|
By BRUCE CRUMLEY |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Posted Sunday, April 14, 2002; 15.05GMT
Imagine that France was a developing country. What would the International Monetary Fund tell it to do? The state is France's biggest employer, directly providing nearly 25% of all jobs and indirectly supporting a further 15% — the IMF would certainly not approve. It would point out that by shrinking the public sector, the French could cure their spendthrift ways. (Last year public spending represented 51.4% of GDP.) The IMF would argue that by privatizing many services now assured by the state — from health care to transport to pensions — French wage earners would be left not only with more money in their pockets, but also with cheaper, more efficient services. And finally, the IMF would scold, lose that 35-hour week and get yourself a real work ethic.
Back on planet France, however, that wake-up-and-smell-the-austerity message is hardly being aired. France's big government is not only alive and well, it's getting bigger and more expensive all the time — and the French like it that way. From 1997-2001, the budget of France's civil service rose by 11.5% — or 111 billion — and is set to expand another 3.7% (worth 14.2 billion) this year, partly to recruit nearly 16,000 new public employees. According to economist Jacques Marseille, whose book The Great Waste details France's profligate ways, ill-conceived public spending has made the nation a notorious exception to the European trend toward shrinking government. While French public spending in 1990 represented 49.5% of GDP versus a European average of 47.4%, he writes, in 2000 France's ratio rose to 51.4% of GDP, while the E.U. level dropped to 44.2%.
The French fear that trimming back the state would undermine the nation's vaunted public services, the very things that guarantee the country's quality of life. "There is a certain cultural attitude in France that considers work, money, success and business important only in as much as they contribute to more important things like family, personal happiness and quality of life," explains Robert Rochefort, director of the Center of Research for the Study and Observation of the Conditions of Life in Paris. "That produces resistance to reform, especially when it comes to public services."
Just what creates that unique French quality of life, feeding the nation's joie de vivre? Part of it, Rochefort says, is "gifts from the gods we did nothing to earn, but which we fully appreciate" — as do the 76.5 million tourists who visit France each year, making it the world's leading holiday destination. Within a relatively small area, France contains a stunning diversity of geography, climate and agriculture. The French show their gratitude for such blessings by taking time to enjoy them. Fast-food culture is advancing, but the French still prefer to sit down to a carefully prepared, multi-course meal. Most French cities still close down entire streets or neighborhoods several mornings per week to hold farmers' markets. The French like to travel, and do so often thanks to generous vacation rights and frequent holidays, as well as subsidized public transport. And many municipalities shut off central thoroughfares on weekends and holidays to create "instant open space" for cyclists and rollerbladers.
|
|
