France is Boned ... But How Boned?

In this episode, Malcolm and Simone dive deep into the current state of France, exploring its pension crisis, demographic challenges, immigration policies, and political turmoil. They compare France’s situation to other European countries, discuss the impact of government benefits, and debate the effectiveness of recent reforms. The conversation also touches on cultural differences, personal experiences in France, and broader themes of government dysfunction and societal change. Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] Hello, Simone. Today we are gonna be talking about just. How cooked France is, just for some statistics that people might be surprised about is in France, your average pensioner makes more money in terms of like cost of living, adjusted money than your average worker in the country. In. In France, 57, sorry, 57% of people are net beneficiaries of the government. 43% pay into the government. Oh no. France is already past the point. And I said this is a point where democracies begin to break down where the average citizen is being paid by the government to exist. And we’re going to look at where this has led to downstream collapse, in just a second here. Also very fun. What I love about diving into France and we’ve had episodes diving into the UK and diving into Germany, and now we’re diving into France, is each country is completely cooked in like its own way. It’s almost like Europe got to be like [00:01:00] the captain planet of evil and country vices. And you know, the UK is like. I’ll arrest people for memes. You know, like there was the guy who was arrested in Scotland for literally painting Islam can be questioned on his wall. And they, the police were like, no, it cannot the girl who, who well, we’re not gonna go into that. All of that. You can, you can go to our video where we point out that the only reason a country would ban the flying of its own flag is if it was under occupation. There’s no other reason to ban the flying of your own country’s flag, because presumably you do that in support of your government, right? If the government sees that as an attack on them, and this usually happens under occupation, like France under occupation, you ban it. So the UK has got its draconian speech laws and, and, and all of that. Then in Germany you have like a secret police force of like brown shorts that literally label mainstream political parties as terrorist organizations and monitor in harass mainstream like people [00:02:00] who are to the left of like the United States president or us, for example, as being. Political. Mind you, this is a political party, the a FD that is run by a lesbian in an interracial relationship. So yeah, not exactly that extreme, right? Then we get to France, right? And what is their nature of terribleness? They’re actually pretty good about not arresting people for stupid things. And they’re actually pretty good about not like spying on the quote unquote far right party, which we’ll go into like lap pen’s party or bullying them. But they have the curse of the French, which means, oh no. The problem with France is that it’s full of French people. And French people have completely unrealistic expectations around what to expect and. They are treating. Like if, if you, if you watch, and what we’ll go into a bit is this recent OD of you know, Francis current Prime Minister Macron [00:03:00] constantly trying to get the retirement age raged from 62 to 64. Now 64 would be a very young retirement age, globally speaking. And yeah. What, Simone Collins: let’s see, was it, is it in the USA, It is 67 for social security. Malcolm Collins: Yeah, so the point being is he wants to raise it a a moderate amount, and we’ll go into the data here, but like anyone could tell you that the system’s gonna be insolvent in just like a decade and a half if they don’t raise it. And literally this is what keeps breaking the government. And when I say break, I mean literally they’ve been through like four sitting whatevers like head of the governments in like the past few years because they, they pee everything to like step down the ministers Simone Collins: right. Malcolm Collins: You know, whatever, because France is Simone Collins: a president and a Prime minister and it’s, they’re, they’re churning through Prime Ministers this point. Yeah. We’ll, we’ll Malcolm Collins: get to it. Yeah. And, and the core reason is, and the core reason that everything about Macrons blew up, even though he tried to side with the lefties, is just over this retirement age thing. And what makes this so funny to me. [00:04:00] Is the system won’t even exist in like a decade and a half if they don’t make this change. Right. And this change will, I feel like even if Simone Collins: they do two years doesn’t seem this yearly enough. Yeah. What change Estimated Malcolm Collins: to increase its lifespan by one decade. Maybe if they do it immediately. And so they’re not even like arguing for like this being a permanent thing. They’re arguing for a thing they would hypothetically want if money grew on trees. But like you go to the French people and you’re like. Here is the data. Money doesn’t grow on trees. And they’re like, ah, whatever. So let’s get into this. So right now in, in, in France retirees per workers, so we’re not even talking about dependences, remember I talking about they’re already past the dependency ratio with 57% of the population taking its money from the state, not giving to the state. Yeah. For 43% of French is already retirees. Gosh, that’s gonna be 55% by 2070. And keep in [00:05:00] mind their birth rate fell 20% in the past 10 years. Simone Collins: So yeah, this is only gonna get worse. Are there many developed countries that have that proportion of old people or is this is France? Yeah. France is actually Malcolm Collins: one of the best countries in Europe for demographics. Oh. They have one of the highest. Fertility rates and all of fertility rates. Yeah. Simone Collins: But still proportion of old people. I mean, like I, I thought most countries hadn’t gotten to that point of being. Most countries don’t that dependency ratio don’t Malcolm Collins: have, most countries don’t have a retirement age at 62. Simone Collins: Yeah, that is really young. Okay, Malcolm Collins: so France actually has, like, if you’re talking like fertility rate flies, France is great. And if you wanna know why France is great despite being a Catholic country, ‘cause that’s unusual for Catholic countries, is it actually secularized way earlier than other countries in Europe? And as we have pointed out collapsing fertility rates is largely about the urban monocultural belief system. And the longer you have been exposed to that, the more resistance you’ve been able to culturally and perhaps even [00:06:00] genetically evolve to its lures. And France has about a hundred years on most other European countries because they underwent their first fertility collapse about a hundred years before, for example, the UK did. Which is why France, I would argue, has such robust fertility numbers. In its native population. But it, but it doesn’t matter because they’re completely unreasonable. I, I should note here, by the way, and people can ask you know, if I’m speaking derisively about French, people know, like, one of the jokes on the show is like, I don’t like really like French people very much. Like the country very much. You know, I, I make jokes on that and people are like, why? Why, why do you feel this way? Have you been to France, Simone? Been? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve been there multiple times too. And I have never been to anywhere on Earth, and I’m not even talking about by like a, a margin, like nowhere comes close to being treated with. As much rudeness and derision as I was treated for no reason. [00:07:00] And, and people can be like, well, it’s a cultural difference. And I’m like, fine then I don’t like that culture. Right. Like, and people in Europe, they talk about this. Like I know French people when they come to the US and they’re like, everyone is so nice. In inauthentic. And I’m like, no, that’s not inauthentic. You don’t have to like, like somebody to treat them with basic human dignity, right? Like, you, you don’t need to, like if you’re, if you’re doing your job and they’re not like actively resisting you, right? It doesn’t cost you anything to smile and try to make the day of like a random other person who you don’t know anything about, marginally better. And did you, did you have this experience in France as well, or is this unique to me? Simone Collins: I can’t say I interacted a lot with people because I generally avoid people whether I’m traveling or not. Yeah. So I guess I don’t really care. And if they leave me alone, I’m pretty happy about it. Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Also it was a constant, I, I mean, this is not unique to France. It also happened when I’m traveling in Italy. But the constant harassment of young women walking around is also [00:08:00] really gets to me. But again, this is just where I’m culturally different, right. And, and people can be like, well, you know, different cultures be different. Right. And, and that’s true around the world. And I’m just like, from my cultural perspective, I think that you should, you know, give other people that you meet randomly the benefit of the doubt and be nice to them. And people will be like, well, that’s just Paris or whatever, right? And it’s like, okay, great. Maybe it is just Paris, but like we go to Manhattan all the time and people in Manhattan are perfectly nice to strangers. Like, and, and Manhattan? No, no. Well, Manhattan’s known as being one of the less nice places in the United States and it’s still fairly nice. The only city I go to in the US where I like regularly see people be mean to people out of nowhere is San Francisco, but that’s mostly because they’re on like drugs or clearly mentally ill. And that’s more just like random a, a attack, homeless, I’ll call them. Attack the, the attack homeless that San Francisco has, has cultivated and pushed into. Its its most dense tourist zones. But anyway. So to continue here [00:09:00] deficits are already emerging post 2023 reform, COR estimates 1.7 billion deficit by 2025, potentially rising to 6.6 billion by 2030. Even with the retirement age hike pension spending holds at around 13.7% of GDP until 2030. But could climb of of gross slows September, 2025 Financial Times reports based on Luxembourg income study data highlighted that retirees over 65 now have a higher standard of living and disposable income relative to working age adults. However, this isn’t because raw pensions exceed full-time salary. So let’s talk over a bit how this works. Simone Collins: Yeah, I’m curious. Malcolm Collins: So, they have a median standard of living when, when you cost adjust of 2,310 euros a month per household versus for workers 2,100 and and 10. So this is slightly higher. Wait, 2010 Simone Collins: versus 2010. Did, did you get those numbers right? They’re the same Malcolm Collins: 2,300 versus 2,100. [00:10:00] Simone Collins: Oh, okay. So basically a 200 Euro difference. Malcolm Collins: Yeah. But the, the reason for this is they have fewer, fewer dependents. They have lower taxes because people on Yeah, that makes sense. Have lower taxes. Yeah. And they often have supplementary income from like assets they’ve built up over their house, like houses or whatever. But still that’s, that’s absolutely wild. That is. In, in terms of like what France is paying on immigrants. France actually has a significantly better immigrant situation than most of Europe. I think despite most people’s perception I think it’s, so maybe they just Simone Collins: concentrate in Paris. ‘cause I see a ton of YouTube videos on just yeah. Paris being completely different now than it was five or 10 years ago. Malcolm Collins: Well, Trump even said this, right? He got in trouble for saying it, but he goes, oh, Paris is like a, a dirt place to live now. Nobody wants to be there anymore. Oh, no. And this is a, a situation we’re having all around the world. I’ll note like Manhattan, for example, is a garbage city today compared to 15 years ago. Simone Collins: It is not the same Malcolm Collins: even [00:11:00] five, six years ago. It’s not the same. And it’s just empty and, and, and boarded up. And and you see this, it’s, again, it’s not just France. There’s many places in, in the UK you can go through where, you know, it is, it’s clear that you are not welcome there based on your ethnicity. And it’s, it’s a very uncomfortable thing, especially if those, those neighborhoods were important to you growing up, or, or, you know, you saw they were important to you at some point. In, in your life. But the funny thing is, is like. All of my best French friends, because I actually have like a collection of like French friends I’m pretty tight with. Are immigrants African, you mean they Simone Collins: are immigrants to France? Malcolm Collins: Yeah, they’re, they’re African immigrants to France. Like when I go to France, I stayed at, at their house. And this is, you know, all, all black family, all you know, white, black community. And that’s where I was hanging out and they were all. Way nicer to me than any of the French people I’ve met. So, so like this is my thing where I might have a bit more ambivalence than [00:12:00] than other countries to, to what is happening in, in France right now. But France actually doesn’t have as bad of an immigrant situation as either in terms of how they influence policies as you see it in the uk or in terms to just their sheer percentage of the population as you have in Germany. Hmm. But their immigrant situation is bad in another way, which is that immigrants in France are a net tax drain. Unlike a lot of other countries, like in the United States the immigrants are generally argued to be a net tax benefit. Yeah. But in France so this is from Le Figaro. Nicholas Pvo Monte concludes that immigration represents a GDP loss in France of 3.4% per year. Keep in mind, they’re only spending 13 like 0.4% on retirees. Wow. So if, if you, if you what is it? If immigrants had the same employment rate as natives, the national wealth generated each year would be 3.4% higher, and tax revenues would be 1.5 percentage points higher as well.[00:13:00] He says, quote, this loss in gross in this cost to the taxpayer, contribute to high tax burdens on businesses, which in term hampers the entire economy. In other words, encouraging immigration to fill shortages in the few strain sectors amounts to sacrificing gross in all of our sectors. So. France again, even though it’s got like the fertility rate problem, it’s very bad at setting up a system that selects for productive immigrant populations. And if they could you know, then immigrant, and this is the thing like immigrants, like, it’s not a like falling fertility rates and falling demographics is not a warm body problem. It’s a taxpayer problem. If you are taking people into your country who are. Tax drains that’s going to hurt your country. Yeah, and, and Simone Collins: again, people, they like to frame that as. Oh, these ISTs want certain types of people to reproduce. That is such a terrible misrepresentation when what we’re talking about is the ability to maintain social services for society’s most vulnerable [00:14:00] people. When you are bringing in non net tax paying immigrants or any citizen that is not a net taxpayer, you are actively throwing the vulnerable people already in that country. Under the bus you’re saying. I don’t care about them anymore. Let’s accelerate their minds. Yeah. Welfare Malcolm Collins: explodes, who cares? You know this is. Mm-hmm. And I, I will note my wider stance on immigration, and I think it’s something. So, so I have a few points here. I think immigration in Europe is very different than immigration in the United States. The United States is dealing with a majority Latin American immigrant population which is culturally not that dissimilar from the native population. In fact, every single one of the vices. That people associate with the Latin American immigrant wave that the United States is dealing with right now are vices that we complained about in equal amounts during past Catholic majority immigrant waves. When the Irish came, you had the Irish mob, you had all the, the terrible crime waves and everything like that. When the Italians came you had the Italian Mafia. You know, this is, this is just a. [00:15:00] Catholic immigrant wave thing. We have different episodes on why you see organized crime in Catholic populations more. It, it was specifically Catholic immigrant populations more because it’s, it’s not unique to Catholic. You also see it in Eastern Orthodox communities which you have the Russian mob as well where you don’t see them importing their, their criminal organizations very effectively if they’re from other cultural groups, like for example, like, like the, the Japanese and Chinese have big organized crime waves within their country, but they didn’t import them in an, the, the, the degree to which, like MS 16 or the mafia or the mob. Yeah. I’ve not heard of the, Simone Collins: about being, Malcolm Collins: In the United States. Yeah. So, so the, the, the, the whiter point I was I was making here is that the United States can more easily adapt and integrate its integrate. Population. I mean, as, as we saw, over 50% of Hispanic males voted for Trump, right? Like they’re adapting pretty quickly. But. And I think that we have less of a moral argument against immigration than other countries. Given that, you know, we all did come here at [00:16:00] some point, right? To a country that was dissimilar from US cultural history, like it is a, a nation of immigrant. I do love though, Simone Collins: you kind of get the tone that I mean theming with France and their immigrants and apparently them bringing in net drains and the statue of Liberty’s slogan of like, bring me you’re tired, you’re, yeah. All masses. In China, or sorry, France giving us that statue and being like, send the trash over. It’s in the trash every here. Yeah, yeah. Go, go to America, guys. But then they, they, they keep bringing in their own Right. But it’s such a passive aggressive thing. I don’t know. I find very strange. Malcolm Collins: I, I think that they have less of a, you know, it’s literally like their native. Land and country, right? Like if, if a group wants to say, I’m uncomfortable with letting unchecked immigration into my native lands th that I think should be treated very differently. And the United States. Simone Collins: But yeah, literally you have indigenous peoples in. France, Malcolm Collins: the French are the Simone Collins: indigenous people. Malcolm Collins: The indigenous [00:17:00] people. Yeah. And, and I’d point out in America, like the waves of immigrants weren’t awesome for the indigenous population. No, they weren’t. Simone Collins: Yeah. Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Not, not a, a lot we can do to reverse the situation right now. But the, the point I’m making. And, and you could be like, well, you could give reparations. And it’s like, actually, that would only make things worse. In the indigenous communities in the US where they do have really high amounts that come from like casinos and stuff like this, and we’ll do a separate episode on this. You have like really high rates of like drug addiction and, and lack of education and poverty. Just in part because of this, look at any of our episodes on UBI like giving out reparations. Seriously. Disadvantages of populations that receive the reparations intergenerationally. That’s a whole other thing. Mm-hmm. The point being is, is I will say that France does though, and they’ll say like, well, we take immigrants because they’re from countries that we previously colonized often. Right. Like, and maybe I understand like the logic there, but to me it’s not like that’s, they still have the right to say, I want to Simone Collins: sort of, I [00:18:00] don’t know. ‘Cause doesn’t, isn’t it the case that with, e English colonialism. The countries did really well. French colonialism. They didn’t, so France could? No, no. The French Malcolm Collins: were garbage colonialists. That’s another I know. They kind Simone Collins: of owe them, they kind of owe them if they Malcolm Collins: screwed up their countries. Yeah. Like the, the, the British really don’t have that much to be embarrassed about colonialism. Why? Oh Simone Collins: yeah. They, they can be like, no man, like. You’re welcome. We, we made you better off the French, Malcolm Collins: The, the yeah, and, and, and people can be like, oh, well what about these atrocities? And it’s like, even if you account for the atrocities, the England spent like half a century paying for a giant fleet just to stop other countries from doing slavery, right? Like. Nobody had done that sort of international moral policing at that point. That was like a completely new idea. Like let’s take a portion of our national budget and just police everyone else’s slaving roots, right? Like Britain really has nothing to be embarrassed about in regards to that stuff. But anyway, I should continue here. So. [00:19:00] Recent analysis, including adaptations of fiscal space concepts, indicate that without further reforms, the system’s funding from labor taxes could hit limits where sustainable taxation can’t cover expenses. We’re talking here about the social security system pre 2023 based selling projection suggested exhaustion by 2030. So, so their pension. System in France exhausts in five years. Five years, okay. Mm-hmm. They’ve got five years, Simone Collins: which, and that’s so interesting to me because when, for example, it was proposed that retirement age would be raised forefront among the protestors were young people, people who were like, no, Malcolm Collins: you got this wrong. I really, I looked this up. Yeah. So the, the yellow shirt riots were yellow vest riot. We’re not about this issue specifically, I’m Simone Collins: referring to more recent protests, Malcolm Collins: the ones that, well, the reason why that they’ve been able to get the protestors out there, even the young ones who no way by the math are [00:20:00] going to see these patients. That’s why I find it so strange is that the young people are being manipulated by the unions. Which have a lot of members who are pensioners, so basically French has like really strong, we’re kinda being lied Simone Collins: to. Like, they may not even be aware of the fact that they’re being explicitly lied Malcolm Collins: to. So I, I was actually looking at this and they went through and they would like ask the protesters why they were protesting. And it was things like, well, why should I have to work when the environments burning and stuff like typical leftist slop it, it, it really, they don’t understand why they’re protesting. They just hate Macron and they hate. Quote unquote business where Macron isn’t even like pro business. He’s pro like basic rationality. And I don’t even think he’s a good guy. He’s not like my guy, like I’m a Lapin guy, right? Like, but CRA’s things that he’s fighting for are like basic things to keep the pension system working for 15 years rather than five years. Right? Like, this is, this is basic stuff, right? Like what are other things that he’s fought for that are like really. You know, just absolute [00:21:00] ns you people are arguing for like, I want an infinite money tree. Well, I’m sorry we don’t have an infinite money tree. Well then I’m gonna burn down your car and city and murder people in the streets maybe don’t do that, right? Like, anyway. So, at the, at that stage we’re talking the 2040 stage pension deficits could escalate significantly. Current pension deficits are mod 1.7 billion euros in 2025. But they could rise by 2020. 30 to 6.6 billion. Contributing to overall, and keep in mind a debt that is always increasing is not a debt that is serviceable and will eventually be called on. Right. And there really isn’t much you can do about this. The other thing that he wanted to do that everybody complained about, where they go, it’s big business and really it’s just practical, is the insane tax, like wealth taxes that they tried to do in France. Mm mm. That would’ve basically kept people from investing. And was this Simone Collins: [00:22:00] recent, because the last time I remember reading about France and taxes was that France was just slurping up all of the Yeah, because mostly British people, when the UK raised taxes, Malcolm Collins: Macron’s reforms. Oh. And everybody freaked out about that, when really he was significantly helping the French people. They were just too spoiled to see it. Mm-hmm. So, by the way, the, for, for the first time in 2024, deaths out outpace bursts in France. So they’ve already hit like the beginning of the plateau. And now it’s, we down all the, they, they’ve been like tick going up the rollercoaster before they hit back down. So, what was I gonna say here? Oh, yeah, I was gonna talk about the unemployment gap among immigrants in France. Oh. Non-EU foreigners face 19.5% unemployment versus 8% for natives in France. Simone Collins: Oh, yikes. Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Poverty rates are 34% in immigrant populations compared to 14% within the native population. Simone Collins: So is this due to some form of. Employment discrimination whereby it’s really hard to get a job as an immigrant. [00:23:00] Hmm. Because that, that is the case in many countries. Malcolm Collins: I don’t think so. So I’ve pointed this out a lot, and this is like a mantra that everyone needs to like, like globally, we need to grok this. And I love it came from my grandfather who was a congressman actually. And I only read it because somebody read it back to me was a slur that he had used while, while explaining it. And I was like, wow, granddad, I had never considered that. Thank you for this gift of knowledge from a different age. But he said. Famously that you, you cannot have generous social welfare systems and porous borders. He said you have to choose one of the two. Because if you have generous wealth, social welfare systems and porous borders, like very, very easy to cross borders you are going to just draw the people who want to live off of those systems into your country. Until like osmosis you, you get equalization and you no longer have those systems functional anymore. You know, they, they’ve been completely milked. To, to saturation point, that’s why I use the [00:24:00] osmosis. So, do people know what osmosis is? Should I explain what osmosis is? You know, it doesn’t even matter anyway. Do you, do you know, do you need a. Simone Collins: I, I know it’s about equalization between cell membranes typically. Okay, great. Yeah. With concentrations Malcolm Collins: of, Simone Collins: of Malcolm Collins: material to, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So anyway so the point here being. And because if you do, then you get equalization. The, the, the two ways around that is to have generous social welfare systems then keep your borders very tight. Or you can, but, but France tried to have both. And what that means is because France is more generous to its immigrants than other countries like the United States, if I am an African. Right. And I am deciding do I want to go immigrate to the United States or do I want to go immigrate to France? Right. I’m, I’m making the choice. Suppose I’m one of two people, [00:25:00] right? In case one I have a, a Harvard graduate degree or a Stanford graduate degree. I am a, a well-known engineer. I’m really like productive. Obviously like the choice wouldn’t even be a a, you go to the US. So you, you got Nigerian guy, super, super smart you know, could get a job at any company. There’s no way on earth he’d immigrate to France and unless he just happened to speak like French and have a family connection there or something, right? Probably, yeah. But generally speaking. Outside of other factors, he’s gonna go to the United States. Now, suppose I am a refugee or I am you know, somebody who, you know is, is comfortable living off of state welfare systems. Which country do I go to? Oh my God, no. I would not look or touch the United States with a 10 foot pole. I’d be, especially with, with Trump and knowing the sentiment about immigrants now in the United States, I, I would just be like, f that. No, but the, the funny thing is, if in the United States there isn’t. Particularly bad treatment of like high talent [00:26:00] immigrants especially in anywhere where they would immigrate too. The United States is being sane in how they’re handling this. Totally. So the reason why France deals whiz immigrants who are a drain on state resources is in part because of their generous social services. Mm-hmm. And I will note that the United States has broken this. Where you saw many of these immigrant talents and immigrants were getting like, literally more money from the government than, than recipients, like native welfare recipients on like credit cards and, and getting nice hotels and stuff like this. This was happening in the UK as well. And really messed up. Really messed up because then that draws the types of immigrants that cause problems. And it’s often the immigrants in these sorts of setups where you have the problems of, you know, the crime waves and the greats and the assaults and all of that. You know, and, and I think that this is one of those things that the left can’t really deal with. It’s like there was a case recently where somebody living in one of those nice hotels and getting money every week in the [00:27:00] uk to some girl. And people were like, but he had a place to live and he had all the money he needed. And why did he like we, we, the left acts? I’m not the left acts like the reason why. Immigrant populations sometimes do bad things, is simply because of bad economic conditions or lack of material goods or something like that, not because they have set up a system that would actively draw in the type of grifters who’s comfortable living that life when most people just aren’t. And in fact you often see this even in countries that offer these things like I know this about Asian immigrants I know from who, who grew up in Canada and they were like, oh yeah, my parents could have taken from those government systems, but they actively chose not to because they thought it was dishonorable. And like that’s the type of immigrant you. Right. Like, where they’re like, well, I could live off the government. I, I fit all the qualifications to, but like, I’m a guest here and I have to earn my place in society. And those are the types of people who are gonna be really anti-immigration in the next wave. Right? There was a bunch of [00:28:00] anti-immigrant way riots in Australia recently. And I noticed a bunch of people rioting looked like visibly Asian. And I was like, oh, you see, oh, you see this in the, in the United States as well. A lot of the anti-immigrant protests have a lot of black and Hispanic participants. But. What was it that Macron put into place that caused everyone to turn against him and led to this incredibly, because he was like the king for a bit and then his coalition completely sped up and then he had to cheat to beat the right. Oh. So for people who don’t know, this is why he had to end up cheating to beat the Right. So what he did is he teamed up with the, the far left groups and he’s sort of a more centrist party, and he’s like, we won’t run against each other in the districts where we’re running against Lapins party. Just. To ensure, because she was gonna get the plurality and be able to control the government and likely right, the ship. We’re gonna talk a bit about her party’s politics in just a second. If people tell you they’re far right, you can, you can judge whether you’d support them all right. But what he tried to do was a retirement agent increase of 62 to [00:29:00] 64. He and, and people just freak the F out basically. And. That really gets me right? Like it really gets me that what he was attempting to do was keep a system solvent for more than five years That they, that they were, they were rioting over an imaginary thing. It, it, it, it reminds me of that Monty Python scene where the guy wants to be a woman and the other guy is like, sure fine Speaker 2: I want to have babies. You wanna have babies? It’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them. But you can’t have babies. Don’t you oppress me. It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression. Symbolic of his struggle against reality. Malcolm Collins: . And I feel like that’s what’s happening in France. They just wanna protest. So. When asked, by the way, because you’re wondering why they, the, the Yellow West protesters like young people were protesting they, they said it symbolized deeper frustrations with Macron’s Pro business. Read that pro reality. Policies, which they saw as favoring the wealthy while [00:30:00] eroding social protections. Issues like precarious job markets, eg. Gig economy, short-term contracts, high use and employment around 17 to 20% for under 25. And education reforms fueled a sense of general discontent. Okay? And getting rid of the wealth tax that’s gonna make all of those things worse. Sorry. Adding the wealth tax, uh uh, him getting rid of it helped all of those things. It caused a flood of new taxpayers, business starters, everything like that. And then if you, other things that they said they had a chant, which was why work longer on a dying planet? Which is sort of crazy. Right? Alright. But I wanna talk a bit about Lapins party. Simone Collins: Yeah. Malcolm Collins: So I’m sure you’ve heard that there are four right extremists. Right. What are, what are their far right and insane beliefs? Right. Right on me. They are against birthright citizenship. Okay. That means that somebody automatically becomes a citizen ‘cause they’re born in a country in a country that has an indigenous [00:31:00] population like France. That makes perfect sense to me. In the United States. I might question ending that slightly more. But in France I have no problem. Was, was getting rid of that. That’s totally a, a rational thing, especially if there’s people abusing the system to abuse your generosity as French people. I mean, if immigrants are a net drain on your economy, what that means is they are essentially like a guest that you are giving money to rolling out the red carpet for. And if they then. Treat your country with anything other than the utmost respect and your heritage with anything other than the utmost respect. And, and I, and I doubt even many people in Lapins party would want to kick out immigrants that are treating French culture with respect. And we’ll see this as well, right? Like this is more to prevent people from abusing the system who do not really care or like French customs and ways of life. Ban dual citizenship and strip nationality from foreign criminals. That sounds pretty reasonable to me. Yeah. National preference for jobs, housing and welfare reserve. Social benefits, eg. Family allowances, RSA and minimum incomes to be [00:32:00] exclusively for French citizens non-free. Must work in France for five years to receive them. Simone Collins: That seems, Malcolm Collins: why is that not already the law? How is this the for right party? Yeah. Moratorium on immigration and deportations. Immediate halt to immigration into family reunification, re regrouping, familia no regulation for undocumented immigrants and deport illegal immigrants. No deport illegal immigrant. Asylum applications must be filed at embassies abroad, not in France. All of that is perfectly reasonable. Restrict healthcare for foreigners. Again, perfectly reasonable. And Deis Islamization Matters specifically a ban on veils in public spaces. Which you know, something that I ideologically am like I, I have more trouble with, and that, Simone Collins: that, that impinges on people’s cultural sovereignty, Malcolm Collins: but. The French people have a right to their own cultural sovereignty, and there are many places in Muslim maturity countries. This is what I would say. If these [00:33:00] populations were the majority, the populations where people are wearing veils right now. Mm-hmm. Would you French people, women be allowed to go outside without veils on? Likely not. In most countries where they’re the majorities, that’s, that’s a law. Or you, you face where it’s not a law. You face the risk of violence in, in, in, in grape. When, when you do go out without it. Mm-hmm. So why is it unjust for them to ask that of these other people? I think that, that it’s their right as a sovereign country to demand that of people who are their guests. Simone Collins: You make a fair point. Yeah, I could see that. Malcolm Collins: I would, I would feel differently if there was no other country that these women could live in, where that was the norm or allowed, or in many cases, legally mandated. Right. So yeah, I, I, I, I, I can’t understand why they, they literally are like, how dare you force this on these people? And it’s like, there are countries where people who think like them are the majority, and we can look at the laws in those countries. Mm-hmm. The, the famous dune line that everyone likes to quote, When I am weaker than you, I ask [00:34:00] for freedom because that is according to your principles. When I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles. Okay? Malcolm Collins: Basically saying that the, the, the groups only say, oh, I want this stuff right now because they can benefit from it, right? Um hmm. Exit key EU framework. So they want to leave nato. They want to leave the eu. Wow. They’re claiming that France is overpays by $7 billion annually. They wanna hold a public vote on leaving the eu. I think that’s totally irrational. The EU has been a complete disaster and it’s gonna be quite dangerous to France in the near future. ‘cause France for a long time was Annette. Drain on the eu. Basically Germany paid into it. France took out of it. That was the way it mostly worked. It was basically a form of war reparations on Germany. But now that Germany’s population is crashing out faster than France’s is France has no reason to continue to play with this, basically to scam system. They set up. Drain German coffers so that Germany could play like it was ruling Europe. Which I guess they kind of were for a period. Yay. [00:35:00] They got what they wanted in imposed their totalitarian mindset on everyone. They want more protectionist trade and nationalization of specifically they want nationalization of a lot of public utilities. It’s sort of like their version of like the B-B-C-N-P-R, that sort of stuff. Totally reasonable. They want anti tech fraud ministry. Ooh, a lot of French people are gonna be mad about that. Hmm. They want tax incentives for youth and family to try to get the birth rate up. Good for them. Simone Collins: Not gonna make a difference, but, well, I guess if it’s income tax incentives, it really could actually. That’s the one thing Malcolm Collins: we Simone Collins: really support. Malcolm Collins: They want to stop giving like family allowances and, and welfare to families that are committing crimes or in other ways delinquent and like doing bad things, which again great. They even want to enact the death penalty. Oh no, I’m pro death penalty if you do it cheaply in the US we do it too expensively, that’s the thing. Yeah. I don’t know if they would be doing it Simone Collins: financially sustainably. Malcolm Collins: I, I think most people when they initially set it up would do it sustainably. I think the only reason the US is so unsustainable about it is because we’ve had it in for so long, [00:36:00] but they want to ban. This is the only policy I really hate about theirs. Is they want to ban assisted unloving. Simone Collins: Mm. Malcolm Collins: Which I think is not smart. Simone Collins: That’s so off theme for a free problem? Well, no, it’s Malcolm Collins: like the appeal to the traditional Catholics. Simone Collins: Oh, okay. Malcolm Collins: Keep in mind, they also have like ridiculous IVF policies in France, where’s basically illegal. Yeah. And people are like, no, it’s not illegal. It’s, you have to implant the embryos immediately. That makes it functionally like really difficult to do at above replacement rate. Mm-hmm. Which to me means that you, you know, you’re functionally sterilizing any family that’s having trouble basically. Okay. Just for some ca roll into of how, how bad the situation in France is right now. France has been in a prolonged political crisis since President Emmanuel recall Ruon called Snap legislative elections in 2024, following his citrus alliances, poor showing in European parliamentary elections. The elections resulted in a hung national assembly. It was no single block securing the majority. And blah, [00:37:00] blah, blah. Lapins party would’ve won the plurality with about 33%, so they cheated to, to win. I could go over the specifics of, of what’s been going on there, but I don’t think it’s particularly interested. I think Simone Collins: r is, they’re basically unable to form a functional government right now. One of the primary reasons why. A coalition can’t be formed that would be sufficient to do so is that none of the politicians given the time left before the next scheduled election want to put their reputations on the line and get involved with this dumpster fire when it would probably preclude them from being able to win when they run next. So they’re like, no, I’m sitting this one out. Totally not tying myself to this mess. And two years away from your next big election. Not touching this. So basically no one’s stepping up to the plate because they actually wanna get reelected and the system demands a certain amount of consensus in order to function. And so you have this deeply divided government that has no incentive to form or be [00:38:00] functional, which means really, this is just another example. I mean, we’re, we’re recording this at the time of a government shutdown in the United States. What we’re starting to see is an age of. Dysfunctional governments have governments unable to even spend the, the money they still have at this time. And I think people are going to be increasingly accustomed, if not functionally, at least mathematically to the idea of their governments not really working anymore and, and, and recontextualizing their private communities, their own families, and also just private businesses as being the new sources of ultimate governing power. Malcolm Collins: Yeah. And I, and I point out here with France, IBF policy, we wouldn’t have any kids if we lived in France. Like we, we, we like literally would be sterilized by the state. Well, we’d have Simone Collins: to go to other countries and that’s what most people are doing in Europe. Well, you know, they’re going Netherlands, they’re gonna Mexico, Malcolm Collins: they’re going. It’s very hard. It’s very hard to do. It’s Simone Collins: expensive. It’s not fun. Especially if you’re Malcolm Collins: doing it for a lot of kids. Like we would be, you know? Yeah. So, you know, and you’ve gotta go for the checkup appointments, you’ve gotta go. So, [00:39:00] in France today, like I’m just pointing out my larger. Themeing here in France today, we would be sterilized by the state. Under Sharia law, we wouldn’t all of my like best French friends are black Muslims so like, and like literal African black Muslims. So they’re all my, my best friends and friends. And so like, my ambivalence towards France’s situation right now is high. Because they’ve always been nicer to me. Like the, the, the, the, the African Muslim community in France has always been nicer to me than the French community. Now this isn’t, by the way, true of all Muslim populations. Like in the uk for example, the Muslim population there has always been ruder to me than the native British population. But they’re getting Muslims from different parts of the world. I, I don’t know what the whiter, like, obviously I have. Disproportionately spent time in one Muslim community in France, and I don’t know if this is true for all the Muslim communities in France Simone Collins: and for what it’s worth, I had good friends who were college students at France when I was in college and [00:40:00] visited France a ton and had a great experience. So it’s, I don’t know. I also feel like part of this is your text and heritage and there’s something also that seems to be uniquely. Texan about not liking France and mispronouncing Oh, everywhere. Malcolm Collins: Everyone I knew grew up hated French people. Yeah. Like I, it was like a normal thing. Like, you guys might not understand this if you’re from Texas but it was seen as like a normal patriotic thing. Like it, it was part of being patriotic, like yeah. Simone Collins: Guns. Whereas my grandmother was a French war bride. My mother was, she was Malcolm Collins: not a French war bride, Simone. She called, Simone Collins: literally her biography is called Memoirs of a French War bride. She really wanted to be French. Malcolm Collins: To be French ‘cause she thought it was high class. Okay. Yeah. She was a F-ing Jew from Russia. Okay. She was not a French war bride. She tried Simone Collins: to brand herself as such. Okay. Like, quite literally. But anyway, like I know what Malcolm Collins: she did because she was hiding from Nazis. Simone Collins: Yeah, but I mean, I grew up with Francophiles, so I, you know, I, I’m okay with it. If you, if you’re French and you watch this podcast, [00:41:00] please don’t think we all hate you. No, we Malcolm Collins: haven’t. We’ve, we’ve done something. There’s this great community in France, which I wish we had in the us. Which is like, an investment group. That Oh, that one? Yes. Yeah. That specifically is trying to, they’re like a vc, but they are like aligned with like the lain party and like trying to bring Frances birth rates back up, bring back heritage in ways that they can also capitalize on. You also keep in Simone Collins: mind, French culture is extremely divided Parisian culture. Is extremely different from the culture in the French countryside, for example. Malcolm Collins: Yes. I, I, I always hear that, right? Mm-hmm. And so, maybe if I spent more time in the French countryside, I’d have a very, and I haven’t been to the French countryside, actually. Simone Collins: I think people in the French countryside also have like a similar attitude toward Parisians that you do. I kind of hate them like get Malcolm Collins: rid of ‘em. Simone Collins: Yeah. So, you know, I’m just saying, Malcolm Collins: Well, no, it’s, it’s one of those things where like there’s just no reason to be rude to somebody for no reason. Like, unless you’re a Parisian it makes a day worse. I think. I feel like the Simone Collins: [00:42:00] Snobbiness is part of the cultural cachet, you know, to be the mean, popular, fashionable girl that, that coldness, you know, just how the studies have found that waitresses that are more cold get higher tips. Malcolm Collins: Oh, really? Mm-hmm. I had no idea. That seems very unfair. I know. It, Simone Collins: it really frus, like all the waitresses who participated in these studies were like completely outraged by this. Like, I bent over backwards to be accommodating and nice to you and you tip me less. So yeah. Malcolm Collins: Anyway you want, you know, Simone Collins: you want the approval of the person who’s like, aloof. Malcolm Collins: I just don’t understand the purpose of acting that way. Like it puts other people in a bad mood and then they act bad towards other people, and it’s like a cycle that spins outta control. Yeah. I, I just don’t, I don’t, I understand it’s their culture and like if they’re leaning into it, Parisian culture specifically, I, I, I note that it, it’s not that way in the countryside. I’ve heard. Simone Collins: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I will also say like in in German cities I’ve gotten [00:43:00] much more like glares and, and brusque responses in German cities, like checking out at the grocery line and stuff like fumbling with money and whatnot, and them just being like, and Germans are nice for that, and I love Germans. You know, just ‘cause Malcolm Collins: people are, Simone Collins: do Malcolm Collins: I, I, Germans are, are fine, they’re too authoritarian. Like, no, their Simone Collins: language is the cutest language. How can you call a language? That has words like wa vasal. Malcolm Collins: Well, I, I should point out by the way, I have also dated both French and German girls. Very seriously dated a German girl. She was a hardcore communist. She argued to me that, cuba was a better place to live than America. And I was like, cut one. Why are people risking their lives in little dinghies to try to get to America then? Nobody does that going in the other direction. You know, I know Simone Collins: Greta’s risking her life in a little dingy to try to get to Gaza, so you never know people. Oh, that, that whole Malcolm Collins: thing’s over. Now, like, I’m wondering like for everyone on the Flatella, they like look around and they’re like, okay, so this is no longer an efficient way to [00:44:00] get aid to Gaza. Like, no, it’s just Simone Collins: a party boat, you know? Malcolm Collins: What do we do? I, I actually genuinely wonder if they did party afterwards or were they too shocked by it being Trump to actually party Simone Collins: The boats looked like group houses in Silicon Valley, like the interiors of them from the photos I saw, I just feel like it’s a bunch of young people hanging out, mostly going on in an adventure like your dad did in his college days. But yeah, no, France is, man, I mean, just like considering the timelines of this, you know, that, that this, this is going to become an install program and. Five years. We are very close to seeing the world teetering on very profound instability. And it’s gonna be interesting to see how it plays out, especially as AI rises. So buckle up friends. Malcolm Collins: Yeah, buckle the F up. Oh, by the way, people are wondering, they’re like, Malcolm, why? Why have you dated people from all of these different countries? My undergrad, where I went for four years to get my graduate degree was St. Andrews in Scotland. Which being in Europe [00:45:00] and being one of the best schools in Europe has a hugely diverse population in terms of like what countries and what nationalities which is why I have. So many friends from different countries around Europe. Yeah, the Simone Collins: UK schools are extremely international because they get demand from foreign students and they love accepting them because they pay much, much higher tuition. So foreign students are able to supplement the tuition of, of the local ones. And so it’s a lot harder for local students to get in, but there’s a lot of foreign students there. Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Yeah. Anyway I absolutely love you, Simone, and have a spectacular day. Simone Collins: You Malcolm Collins: too. Simone Collins: Okay. Gimme five minutes. I changed her her. Malcolm Collins: the episode today. How, how, what do people think? Simone Collins: I haven’t had a chance. I was outlining, trying to outline the episode that I was gonna contribute today. So I plan to get to it when I’m with the kids. Malcolm Collins: Oh, that’s fantastic. No problem at all. Anything new you learned today or any new information? I told you though, the fact I learned today is immediately upon the, the withdrawal of these Israeli early forces, the IDF [00:46:00] Hamas starts executing civilians in the street, just lining ‘em up, shooting them in the back. I love it when people are like , oh, the people of Gaza, like the people of Gaza are being unceremoniously massacred. People are like, oh no, what do we do? Buy Hamas? Oh, that’s fine. They were probably gay or something. Whatever. Oh my God. Do we know Simone Collins: what Malcolm Collins: they Simone Collins: were? Malcolm Collins: Yeah. So they, they said they, they were not like sufficiently pro Hamas during the, the war whatever, basically anyone, and this is the reason why I personally had a lot less negative thoughts towards the, the casualties that were happening there than I would in a normal war. Because Hamas made a pretty good showing of trying to kill anyone who wasn’t pro Hamas. You know, there weren’t a lot of. People left who were not pro Hamas. Well, apparently Simone Collins: they were enough. Malcolm Collins: Yeah, but, well, I, we don’t even know if these people were anti Hamas. I mean, it could have just been a terror campaign or anything like that. You know, this is a, the way these things work, Simone Collins: I think the [00:47:00] broader theme is that Hamas was. Perfectly willing to indis almost in indiscriminately kill its own or use its own as human shields Malcolm Collins: or, well, no, the, the, the, the wider point being is that while the IDF were occupying there you know, in many ways it was a safer place to be than it is today. Mm-hmm. Which it’s a shame, but that’s, you know, I, I think what everybody expected, who wasn’t completely brainwashed, and it’s, it’s wild to me that we’re not seeing the protesters mention this. And as we mentioned in the episode today, just nobody cares. Like, it’s, it, the war is over. And all of those college people who literally like celebrated October 7th, October 7th. Seventh, October 7th, and they were cheering about this and there was all of these, these things they didn’t cheer when the war ended. When they said that that was their goal. And I think for a lot of people and a lot of progressive in coming out here and saying this, they’re like, oh, like, it really was like about murdering people. Like it, it really was about killing [00:48:00] the Jews. It was not about what they told me it was about. Right. Because they would be cheering right now, there would be holding celebrations on these college campuses. They would be in all of the cities where they marched the streets holding celebratory marches, and they just aren’t because they didn’t care. And I think that there’s been some videos of like some leftist, like. Oh my God. Like, so this was really about antisemitism. I thought that was like a right wing grift. So this is a wake up call for a lot of people. And, and, and for a lot of you, if, if, if you saw people who were actively pushing this stuff and, and whining about this stuff and they’re not actively celebrating the end of the war I, I would, you know, seriously, like if you thought that they were genuine in their beliefs, like, like reflect on that, right? Like, reflect on what that says about what their actual goals were. Anyway, pretty dark. Yeah, pretty dark. But I, I mean, it’s easy when you’re fighting against evil. Like, I, I like our side on all of this because it just feels like the other side is so nakedly evil. Simone Collins: Anyway, [00:49:00] makes things simpler. Speaker 4: I poop. Speaker 3: Hey, do you guys wanna get me? Uh, I can get you some bonkers. Okay. What about you sweetheart? It say like, and subscribe. Um, not quite there yet. Hey, Octavia, do you wanna say it like and subscribe? Yeah. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit basedcamppodcast.substack.com/subscribe