Comments on: France on the brink—of what? https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/07/france-on-the-brink-of-what/ A blog about political change, among other things Mon, 10 Dec 2018 14:13:20 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 By: Art Deco https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/07/france-on-the-brink-of-what/#comment-2415037 Mon, 10 Dec 2018 14:13:20 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=83020#comment-2415037 Income distribution data is soft and usually heavily footnoted to indicate before taxes and transfers or after and to indicate whether it’s actually an income assessment or a consumption assessment. FWIW, the most recent World Bank assessments are as follows for the share held by the most affluent decile and the most impecunious quintile:

United States: 30.6% / 5% (2016)
Canada: 25.3% / 6.6% (2013)
Australia: 26.4% / 7.3% (2010)
Britain: 25.4% / 7.5% (2015)
France: 26.6% / 7.9% (2016)
Germany: 24.8% / 7.8% (2015)
Italy: 25.7% / 5.9% (2015)
Spain: 26.2% / 5.8% (2015)
Sweden: 22.9% / 8.2% (2015)
Netherlands: 23.0% / 8.9% (2015)
Switzerland: 25.2% / 7.8% (2015)
Poland: [data not availabe]
Czech Republic: 22.1% / 9.7% (2015)
Roumania: 24.7% / 5.1% (2015)
Ukraine: 21.2% / 10.1% (2016)
Russia: 29.7% / 6.9% (2015)
Israel: 29.6% / 4.7% (2012)
Turkey: 32.1% / 5.7% (2016)
Egypt: 27.8% / 9.1% (2015)
Tunisia: 27% / 6.7% (2010)
Japan: 24.7% / 7.4% (2008)
China: 31.4% / 5.2% (2012)
South Korea: 24.2% / 7.3% (2012)
Indonesia: 31.9% / 7.2% (2013)
Thailand: 28.4% / 7.5% (2015)
Philippines: [data not available]
India: 29.8% / 8.3% (2011)
Argentina: 30.9% / 5.0% (2016)
Brazil: 40.4% / 3.6% (2015)
Colombia: 40.0% / 3.9% (2016)
Mexico: 34.8% / 5.7% (2016)

]]> By: Mike K https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/07/france-on-the-brink-of-what/#comment-2414976 Sun, 09 Dec 2018 22:34:05 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=83020#comment-2414976 NB real domestic product per capita in France is as we speak

How about the distribution ? I can’t find a site that shows economy by department. California is a classic example of maldistribution. I’ll bet France is another.

]]> By: Mike K https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/07/france-on-the-brink-of-what/#comment-2414974 Sun, 09 Dec 2018 22:27:29 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=83020#comment-2414974 When I was a kid, I belonged to the Book of the Month Club. One month the book was by Zoe Oldenburg and was The Cornerstone.

It was about the Crusades, including the Albigensian crusade.

]]> By: Kate https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/07/france-on-the-brink-of-what/#comment-2414955 Sun, 09 Dec 2018 17:32:41 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=83020#comment-2414955 “That was an Ecclesiastical inquisition.” Supported by troops from the French Crown. The legend, which is likely not accurate, was that when asked, at Beziers, how they could tell the heretics from the true Catholics, de Montfort replied, “Kill them all. The Lord will know his own.” True or not, there was a massacre.

]]> By: Art Deco https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/07/france-on-the-brink-of-what/#comment-2414951 Sun, 09 Dec 2018 15:56:04 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=83020#comment-2414951 the inability to make ends meet long enough with no hope leads to desperation.

If these demonstrations were composed of people at or below the 30th percentile of the income distribution, that observation would make sense.

NB real domestic product per capita in France is as we speak

2.2x what it was at the time of the May 1968 crisis
3.3x what it was at the time of de Gaulle’s accession in May of 1958
9.3x what it was when the Germans were expelled by the Allies in 1944
5.4x what it was at the time of the February 1934 crisis
4.7x what it was on the eve of the Depression in 1929
9.3x what it was at the time of the Armistice in 1918

]]> By: Richard Aubrey https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/07/france-on-the-brink-of-what/#comment-2414946 Sun, 09 Dec 2018 14:21:58 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=83020#comment-2414946 The last straw doesn’t have to be particularly heavy. If the total exceeds the specs of the camel, the back breaks. It’s all the stuff that went before, picky regulations, substantial fines for minimal offenses, high taxes elsewhere. And, whatever the make up of the load prior to the last straw, the inability to make ends meet long enough with no hope leads to desperation.

]]> By: Art Deco https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/07/france-on-the-brink-of-what/#comment-2414907 Sun, 09 Dec 2018 02:04:58 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=83020#comment-2414907 Languedoc, Albigensian crusade.

See Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie’s Montaillou. That was an Ecclesiastical inquisition.

]]> By: Kate https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/07/france-on-the-brink-of-what/#comment-2414897 Sat, 08 Dec 2018 23:55:46 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=83020#comment-2414897 Languedoc, Albigensian crusade.

India: Yup. Plus, Indians are very color-conscious. In Maharashtra we heard them calling Dravidians (usually darker) “black.” This was not a compliment.

]]> By: Gringo https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/07/france-on-the-brink-of-what/#comment-2414885 Sat, 08 Dec 2018 22:21:25 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=83020#comment-2414885 When we were in southeast France in 2001 we found people were still unhappy about the Parisians invading in the 1200s.

I am reminded of a friend who went to India. In southern India, one local told her, “We don’t speak the conquerors’ tongue.” The reference was NOT to English, as she was being spoken to in English. For this speaker of a Dravadian language , the “conquerors’ tongue” was Hindi!

]]> By: Art Deco https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/07/france-on-the-brink-of-what/#comment-2414883 Sat, 08 Dec 2018 22:06:18 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=83020#comment-2414883 When we were in southeast France in 2001 we found people were still unhappy about the Parisians invading in the 1200s.

Provence wasn’t under the suzerainty of the King of France until the 15th century.

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