![Question :?:](./images/smilies/icon_question.gif)
This link displays a stitching of 2,346 single photos showing a very high-resolution panoramic view of the French capital: 354,159 x 75,570 pixels
You can navigate and explore this panorama up to very fine details...
Any comments, Alexis? Transitory happening due to the recession, or something much more insidious and deeply rooted?These people are the extreme edge of Europe’s working poor: a growing slice of the population that is slipping through Europe’s long-vaunted social safety net. Many, particularly the young, are trapped in low-paying or temporary jobs that are replacing permanent ones destroyed in Europe’s economic downturn.
Now, economists, European officials and social watchdog groups are warning that the situation is set to worsen. As European governments respond to the crisis by pushing for deep spending cuts to close budget gaps and greater flexibility in their work forces, “the population of working poor will explode,” said Jean-Paul Fitoussi, an economics professor at L’Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris.
To most Europeans, and especially the French, it seems this should not be happening. With generous minimum wage laws and the world’s strongest welfare systems, Europeans are accustomed to thinking they are more protected from a phenomenon they associate with the United States and other laissez-faire economies.
But the European welfare state, designed to ensure that those without jobs are provided with a basic income, access to health care and subsidized housing, is proving ill-prepared to deal with the steady increase in working people who do not make enough to get by.
The trend is most alarming in hard-hit countries like Greece and Spain, but it is rising even in more prosperous nations like France and Germany.
“France is a rich country,” Mr. Fitoussi said. “But the working poor are living in the same condition as in the 19th century. They can’t pay for heating, they can’t pay for their children’s clothes, they are sometimes living five people in a nine-square-meter apartment — here in France!” he exclaimed, speaking of an apartment of about 100 square feet.
In 2010, the latest year for which data were available, 8.2 percent of workers in the 17 European Union countries that use the euro were living under the region’s average poverty threshold of 10,240 euros, or about $13,500, a year for single adult workers, up from 7.3 percent in 2006, according to Eurostat. The situation is nearly twice as bad in Spain and Greece.
While direct comparisons are difficult because of different standards, the Labor Department estimated that 7 percent of single adult workers in the United States earned less than the poverty threshold in 2009 of $10,830 in 2009, up from 5.1 percent in 2006.
France fares better than most European countries, at 6.6 percent, but perhaps nowhere is the phenomenon more startling. While the country seems to exude prosperity, the number of working poor is up from 6.1 percent in 2006, and experts predict it will grow.
In France, half the nation’s workers earn less than $25,000.
The median monthly paycheck is $2,199, 26 percent above the average for the entire European Union. But the high cost of living and the difficulty many people face securing affordable housing (home prices have surged 110 percent in the last decade, and most rentals require large advance deposits), leaves a growing number out in the cold.
I think it's mainly due to the recession / the crisis that started circa 2007. But to me that means it is not transitory.Ammianus wrote:Any comments, Alexis? Transitory happening due to the recession, or something much more insidious and deeply rooted?The Working Poor in France
Thank you Very Much for your post, Alexis.Alexis wrote:I think it's mainly due to the recession / the crisis that started circa 2007. But to me that means it is not transitory.Ammianus wrote:Any comments, Alexis? Transitory happening due to the recession, or something much more insidious and deeply rooted?The Working Poor in France
Not entering in what would be a different discussion, but my thinking that the crisis we have entered will be long and nasty doesn't give me an optimistic outlook on future evolution of this situation. France has not -yet ?- been struck to the extent Greece, Portugal, Spain, even America have been, but the future looks bleak for us too.
Similarities in trials however do not necessarily lead to similarities in -political and economic- outcomes. Every nation reacts a different way. French history has more revolutions / upheavals than history of most other countries. Without imagining necessarily something as dramatic, I think that within the next years we will be less tolerant than many other peoples of political-financial elites playing the crisis as an opportunity to increase their power.
Alexis wrote:I think it's mainly due to the recession / the crisis that started circa 2007. But to me that means it is not transitory.Ammianus wrote:Any comments, Alexis? Transitory happening due to the recession, or something much more insidious and deeply rooted?The Working Poor in France
Not entering in what would be a different discussion, but my thinking that the crisis we have entered will be long and nasty doesn't give me an optimistic outlook on future evolution of this situation. France has not -yet ?- been struck to the extent Greece, Portugal, Spain, even America have been, but the future looks bleak for us too.
Similarities in trials however do not necessarily lead to similarities in -political and economic- outcomes. Every nation reacts a different way. French history has more revolutions / upheavals than history of most other countries. Without imagining necessarily something as dramatic, I think that within the next years we will be less tolerant than many other peoples of political-financial elites playing the crisis as an opportunity to increase their power.
Très cool.Alexis wrote:The largest image in the world![]()
This link displays a stitching of 2,346 single photos showing a very high-resolution panoramic view of the French capital: 354,159 x 75,570 pixels
You can navigate and explore this panorama up to very fine details...
probably should go in the photo thread.. anyway .. the most excellent open source http://panotools.sourceforge.net/ done by a generous optical maths genius gives everyone the power to do these even with low end cameras and their is an equally excellent frontend available http://hugin.sourceforge.net/ that makes it easy to drive.Typhoon wrote:Très cool.Alexis wrote:The largest image in the world![]()
This link displays a stitching of 2,346 single photos showing a very high-resolution panoramic view of the French capital: 354,159 x 75,570 pixels
You can navigate and explore this panorama up to very fine details...
That this rhetoric can attract 15% or more of voters I think could scarcely happen in another first-world country than France.The far-left candidate's campaign speeches are peppered with references to 1789, and calls for France to reconnect with the spirit of the Bastille.
If you believe his rhetoric, the whole of Europe is on the verge of a new popular insurrection, merely waiting for France to point the way.
"We're back - the France of revolution!" he tells a crowd of several thousand in the central French town of Vierzon.
"If Europe is a volcano - then France is the revolutionary crater!"
(...)
But this year they have pulled off a trick of which they previously seemed incapable. They have united.
Today Jean-Luc Melenchon, a former Socialist minister turned fiery people's tribune, is polling at 15% of the vote for the first round of the presidential election.
(...)
"He has been able to unite several different factions," says Pierre Haski of the left-leaning news website Rue 89.
"Not just Trotskyists and Communists, but all the new generation of young anti-capitalists who were made so angry by the financial disasters of the last few years."
(...)
According to Haski, Melenchon's real influence will make itself felt after the election, if Hollande wins.
"In June there will be parliamentary elections. Hollande needs allies, so he will have to cut deals. Melenchon may oblige Hollande to be more left-wing than he otherwise might wish."
Dominique Strauss-Kahn could face gang rape charges after an escort girl said the former International Monetary Fund chief and three others held her down and forced her to have anal sex.
(...)
She said Mr Strauss-Kahn “used force” against her. “He held my hands. He pulled my hair, he hurt me,” she told judges, adding that the former French finance minister tried to sodomise her.
“I refused saying no, I don’t want to…I clearly said I didn’t want to several times, out loud,” she reportedly told the judges.
She said three of Mr Strauss-Kahn’s friends who were present did nothing to intervene. In fact, one colleague, grabbed her hands, she alleged.
12.30pm With 50.34 percent of the vote counted, New Democracy continued to be in the lead with 20.02 percent with the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) establishing itself in second place according to nationwide election results announced by the Greek interior ministry via Singular Logic on Sunday night.
The percentage received by each of the parties based on results so far was the following:
New Democracy 20.02
Syriza 16.06
Pasok 13.79
Independent Greeks 10.44
Communist Party of Greece 8.38
Chryssi Avgi 6.86
Democratic Left 6.00
Popular Orthodox Rally 2.88
Democratic Alliance 2.55
Ecologists Greens 2.82
Recreate Greece 1.99
Drasi 1.65
Antarsya 1.17
Vive La France!!!!!
Alexis wrote:The famed "75%" tax rate will actually result in REDUCTION of tax load
(link in French)
Summary:
- Given many limitations & exemptions, the increased revenue from the famed 75% marginal tax rate will be a paltry 210 m€... only 1,800 people will be struck by this tax rate
- As a paradoxical result of this decision, a ceiling has been created for tax rate, meaning that 6,900 people will actually pay less, the State getting 667 m€ less as a consequence
The bottom line is:
- An (undeserved) reputation for France as a country with too high taxes was created / reinforced on the global scale, with all bad side effects to be expected
- At the same time, the tax load will actually be reduced by this decision! All the drawbacks of too high tax rates, without any advantage!
- During the time when those games are played, the crisis continues unabated..
.
The French like their Presidents to have gravitas as well as competence, and my does Sarko (who had neither) look good on both counts compared to le petit François.Alexis wrote:The famed "75%" tax rate will actually result in REDUCTION of tax load
(link in French)
Summary:
- Given many limitations & exemptions, the increased revenue from the famed 75% marginal tax rate will be a paltry 210 m€... only 1,800 people will be struck by this tax rate
- As a paradoxical result of this decision, a ceiling has been created for tax rate, meaning that 6,900 people will actually pay less, the State getting 667 m€ less as a consequence
The bottom line is:
- An (undeserved) reputation for France as a country with too high taxes was created / reinforced on the global scale, with all bad side effects to be expected
- At the same time, the tax load will actually be reduced by this decision! All the drawbacks of too high tax rates, without any advantage!
- During the time when those games are played, the crisis continues unabated...
Thank You Very Much for your post, Torchwood.Torchwood wrote:The French like their Presidents to have gravitas as well as competence, and my does Sarko (who had neither) look good on both counts compared to le petit François.Alexis wrote:The famed "75%" tax rate will actually result in REDUCTION of tax load
(link in French)
Summary:
- Given many limitations & exemptions, the increased revenue from the famed 75% marginal tax rate will be a paltry 210 m€... only 1,800 people will be struck by this tax rate
- As a paradoxical result of this decision, a ceiling has been created for tax rate, meaning that 6,900 people will actually pay less, the State getting 667 m€ less as a consequence
The bottom line is:
- An (undeserved) reputation for France as a country with too high taxes was created / reinforced on the global scale, with all bad side effects to be expected
- At the same time, the tax load will actually be reduced by this decision! All the drawbacks of too high tax rates, without any advantage!
- During the time when those games are played, the crisis continues unabated...
This merely accelerates the shift of the EU ruling axis from Paris-Bonn to (oh the historical irony) Berlin-Warsaw. France gets to join the Club Med also rans.
Meanwhile the South Kensington area of London gets renamed 21st arrondisement by the immigrants, and Frog Alley by the local cabbies.
So is this the updated Huguenot Emigration to England done over again?Meanwhile the South Kensington area of London gets renamed 21st arrondisement by the immigrants, and Frog Alley by the local cabbies.
Now that I think about it, England and Ireland could be considered Lily Padsand Frog Alley by the local cabbies.
Hollande in deep is just as intellectually enslaved to the Euro Project and unfit for Presidency as Sarkozy was.Torchwood wrote:The French like their Presidents to have gravitas as well as competence, and my does Sarko (who had neither) look good on both counts compared to le petit François.
This merely accelerates the shift of the EU ruling axis from Paris-Bonn to (oh the historical irony) Berlin-Warsaw. France gets to join the Club Med also rans.
Meanwhile the South Kensington area of London gets renamed 21st arrondisement by the immigrants, and Frog Alley by the local cabbies.
I have unfortunately come to the conclusion that it may take far too long before northern European countries come to accept and respect southern Europeans as equals. I'm afraid southern European countries will have to go their own way, with a smaller political, economic and monetary union of their own, while keeping a free trade arrangement with the other European countries. I'm not even sure the whole of France would be welcome in such a southern European union, although Occitania would certainly be.Alexis wrote:As for a "Berlin-Warsaw Axis", that is a non-starter because Germany and Poland do not have voting rights enough between them. If Paris seriously departed from Berlin (which is far from done as of yet) and joined Roma and Madrid, the resulting Trio would lead Europe. In practice, Germany would be forced to choose to keep the cake of the Euro and pay for it, or to leave it by recreating the Mark.
We're far from being there yet. But the potential of such a dynamic is clearly creating worries at the Chancellery in Berlin.
I don't think that differences between North and South (Mediterranean) Europe are the only way to look at the present situation, even less to look at Europe's varsity and wealth of different national traditions.Endovelico wrote:I have unfortunately come to the conclusion that it may take far too long before northern European countries come to accept and respect southern Europeans as equals. I'm afraid southern European countries will have to go their own way, with a smaller political, economic and monetary union of their own, while keeping a free trade arrangement with the other European countries.
Regarding secessionist movements, independentists from Alsace, French Basque country, Brittany would each have trouble filling up a cafe room if they met together.With Catalonia about to split from Spain, maybe it isn't a complete fantasy to think that Occitania may one day follow a similar path in relation to France.