Fire, barricades, tear gas, the images coming out of France paint a familiar picture of unrest, but the turmoil sparked by students is not really about education at all. At its core, it is about welfare and the structural flaws in the French model.
High taxes and high debt fuel France's welfare state. It locks in rigid spending commitments that resist reform, while inflation steadily erodes the value of what people actually receive. As Philly Talks puts it, France levies some of the highest taxes in the world, yet schools crumble, and hospitals are understaffed. There is no money left to shore up jobs or raise wages, so even full-time workers feel their purchasing power slipping away.
The Kyiv Post puts it bluntly: France's welfare state is the problem. The country has not posted a budget surplus since 1974. The Daily Telegraph goes further, calling it "the welfare trap eating Europe alive."
When Europe burns over the cost of living while the East builds the future, we are witnessing a tectonic shift: East rises, West falls.
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