Graig,

>I was talking about socialism in general. France does have problems, or do you consider over 10% unemployment and much higher among young adults, to not be a problem. There are some economists here that are starting to talk about ecomomic problems in France and that they could make Greece look like a really good economy.

First of all, you don't seem to understand what socialism really means. Socialism (see definition wikipedia) does not exist in europe. We have social democracies, but socialism as defined and implemented in the former USSR does not exist here. American just do not seem to be able to differentiate between the two and just seem to go wild, blind and panic by the word social as if this is the ultimate evil.

If its the ultimate evil, why does a socialistic country like China doing so well? (I know I bend the word socialism a bit, but a small bit, out of its context here).


Second, I don't think anyone in the US should feel good when looking at frances' 10% unemployment rate while the official unemployment rate in the US also is over 8% at the moment. Even worse, when you consider that in the US people are left out the unemployment statistics when they for example just gave up finding a job, you might conclude that France actually is doing better than the US. According to ZeroHedge the real unemployment rate in the US is arround 11.6% (See http://www.zerohedge.com/news/real-u-3-unemployment-rate-116).

Every country in europe faces challenges, just like the US does. Times are difficult for many, whether you're in the US or in Europe. Some blame the EU and the Euro, but the UK is not doing any better at all. Its just a result of living in a buble far too long.