Curiosidade do dia

 

""Every second, France's debt rises by €5,000. Every second France is now the country with the highest public spending in the world. We must take responsibility; this is the last stop before the cliff."

Figures are indeed dire. French public debt has reached 113.7 per cent of GDP, amounting to €3.3 trillion, with €44.5 billion in interest paid last year, roughly the size of France's defence budget. As for France's deficit, it has skyrocketed to 5.8 per cent of GDP. Only Slovakia is doing worse in the whole of the Eurozone.

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For the French, reality is a foreign concept, better left to Anglo-Saxons. France's public debt may reach catastrophic levels but we French refuse to change the way we live and to renounce all the perks of a very generous welfare system.

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Just like the retirement age. All of our neighbours have raised it to 66, sometimes 70, simply to keep up with demographics. But the French won't hear of it and are clinging on to 60.

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For the economist and Sorbonne professor François Facchini, an expert on France's public spending, what is needed is shock therapy and profound reforms."

São relatos como este que me convencem que algures no futuro vai ser criada uma guerra na Europa para poder ser criado um estado de excepção que permita fazer um reset dos "direitos adquiridos."

Como dizia o Camilo Lourenço esta manhã: A economia cresce 1,4% e a despesa do SNS cresce 10,8%, como é que isto pode ser sustentável?!

And by the way para os promotores do grátis:

"Facchini says. "When a public service is free, for instance in the health sector, demand will always get higher and higher, and the state will at some point need to ration it.""

Trechos retirados de "French in denial about the size of their debt - The bill is rising by €5,000 a second, but the public won't countenance an end to their perks" publicado no The Times de 30 de Julho último.