The French Presidential elections are in and, as you no doubt already have heard, Francois Hollande has won.
People ask my wife and I what we think, now that a Socialist is in power.
I'm never quite sure if people are expecting us to distance ourselves from socialism or if they are looking for a longer, more intelligent conversation on the topic of socialism vs capitalism vs "democracy"?
The distancing from socialism expectation comes from having lived in America where anything "socialist" is denounced, decried, shouted down and labeled "not right for America." This, even though Americans tolerate libraries, police and fire services just fine
The longer more intelligent conversation expectation comes from an idea I have that maybe, just maybe, we could take a good, hard look at the role of government, it's purpose in protecting the rights and liberties of it's citizenry, and talk a little about why the US government is run by big business. I keep expecting that people might begin to look at how controlled their discussions are and how narrow their public fields of conversation have become and that they might break out of the old alley-ways and travel new avenues of discourse.
Alas, there is no perspective when all you know is what you live, and you haven't taken an interest in looking deeply into how other people might (just as successfully as Americans) view things.
I'm sure that Francois Hollande scares Americans. How would I know? Just look at the response of the English and American press.
CNN Money wrote, amongst many other things "...Hollande will inevitably push for tougher financial regulation in France and on the continent, and unlike his predecessor, will most likely see them through. This will invariably impact and eventually restrict the way Wall Street and the City of London does business..."
As if what Wall Street and the City of London do is "right". There is also the undertone of a message delivered, "don't mess with business... it's the "proper" way to do things... it's the best thing we have... and the foundation of how we all live... even if we won't offer decent employment... and the rich bastards at the top are all corrupt..."
America's Paul Krugman continually takes the heat from the Rabid Right and unthinking "centrist" Dems for saying things like, "...It was actually kind of funny to see the apostles of orthodoxy trying to portray the cautious, mild-mannered François Hollande as a figure of menace. He is “rather dangerous,” declared The Economist, which observed that he “genuinely believes in the need to create a fairer society.” Quelle horreur! ..."
Think about that for a moment. He “genuinely believes in the need to create a fairer society.”
The issue that people in American can't openly discuss without revealing their gross ignorance is that they are afraid of socialism in any of it's myriad forms.
From a distance, the conditioning of the American mind is quite complete. Instill fear and your ability to control a population will, therefore, quickly follow.
It's rather sad to read the American and English press around Jami Dimon's latest debacle, where "...JPM could suffer a $20 billion loss when all is said and done." If there is criticism, it is, at best, cautious. After all, JPMorgan is America's largest bank, right? So what if they made a White Whale sized mistake and are looking at another $3BILLION loss? No body was hurt, except for Voldemort's (the London-based trader who is at the center of JPM's mess) ego, right?
Well, I suspect we all know the real answers to those questions.
Yet I doubt American's can connect the dots to what will be Francois Hollande's governmental implementation of socialist ideals and ideas as a protection against exactly these kinds of rich mans games.
Many people of France understand that bad (some might say incredibly self served greedy idiotic ponzi-scheme based) bank behavior is not good for the populace and that good, decent people really do get hurt. They know that the EU bailout of Greece is very much on the backs of retired Europeans who's retirement portfolios are filled with governmental bonds. They understand that if you give Greek bonds an 80% "haircut" that this "haircut" is taken, not by the banks, but by the bond holders themselves. They understand that ECB and IMF imposed "austerity" measures never come with any cost to the banks. No, such "austerity" is always shouldered by the broader populace. Always. They know that the approaches and policies used by the banks and governments that promote "austerity" have never, ever worked to anyone's advantage except to the advantage of the already rich. And they're very much concerned that Spain and Italy "austerity" will only increase already overly large unemployment numbers, thus putting pressure on government services which have been cut through "austerity". It's a very vicious cycle.
Another way must be found.
We were incredibly pleased to witness 2MILLION people showing up in the Bastille for a celebration of Francois Hollande's victory.
Maybe, just maybe, M. Hollande and his new government can show the world that it's OK to level the playing field and that it's the responsibility of government to tend to the care and feeding of it's citizenry and that the world does not revolve around the whims and greed of business-only welfare policies.
People ask my wife and I what we think, now that a Socialist is in power.
I'm never quite sure if people are expecting us to distance ourselves from socialism or if they are looking for a longer, more intelligent conversation on the topic of socialism vs capitalism vs "democracy"?
Will the Euro remain strong against the USDollar?
The distancing from socialism expectation comes from having lived in America where anything "socialist" is denounced, decried, shouted down and labeled "not right for America." This, even though Americans tolerate libraries, police and fire services just fine
The longer more intelligent conversation expectation comes from an idea I have that maybe, just maybe, we could take a good, hard look at the role of government, it's purpose in protecting the rights and liberties of it's citizenry, and talk a little about why the US government is run by big business. I keep expecting that people might begin to look at how controlled their discussions are and how narrow their public fields of conversation have become and that they might break out of the old alley-ways and travel new avenues of discourse.
Alas, there is no perspective when all you know is what you live, and you haven't taken an interest in looking deeply into how other people might (just as successfully as Americans) view things.
I'm sure that Francois Hollande scares Americans. How would I know? Just look at the response of the English and American press.
CNN Money wrote, amongst many other things "...Hollande will inevitably push for tougher financial regulation in France and on the continent, and unlike his predecessor, will most likely see them through. This will invariably impact and eventually restrict the way Wall Street and the City of London does business..."
Will the French piss on the English/American Business Greed Parade?
As if what Wall Street and the City of London do is "right". There is also the undertone of a message delivered, "don't mess with business... it's the "proper" way to do things... it's the best thing we have... and the foundation of how we all live... even if we won't offer decent employment... and the rich bastards at the top are all corrupt..."
America's Paul Krugman continually takes the heat from the Rabid Right and unthinking "centrist" Dems for saying things like, "...It was actually kind of funny to see the apostles of orthodoxy trying to portray the cautious, mild-mannered François Hollande as a figure of menace. He is “rather dangerous,” declared The Economist, which observed that he “genuinely believes in the need to create a fairer society.” Quelle horreur! ..."
Think about that for a moment. He “genuinely believes in the need to create a fairer society.”
The issue that people in American can't openly discuss without revealing their gross ignorance is that they are afraid of socialism in any of it's myriad forms.
From a distance, the conditioning of the American mind is quite complete. Instill fear and your ability to control a population will, therefore, quickly follow.
It's rather sad to read the American and English press around Jami Dimon's latest debacle, where "...JPM could suffer a $20 billion loss when all is said and done." If there is criticism, it is, at best, cautious. After all, JPMorgan is America's largest bank, right? So what if they made a White Whale sized mistake and are looking at another $3BILLION loss? No body was hurt, except for Voldemort's (the London-based trader who is at the center of JPM's mess) ego, right?
Will M. Hollande's government fight for the people?
Well, I suspect we all know the real answers to those questions.
Yet I doubt American's can connect the dots to what will be Francois Hollande's governmental implementation of socialist ideals and ideas as a protection against exactly these kinds of rich mans games.
Many people of France understand that bad (some might say incredibly self served greedy idiotic ponzi-scheme based) bank behavior is not good for the populace and that good, decent people really do get hurt. They know that the EU bailout of Greece is very much on the backs of retired Europeans who's retirement portfolios are filled with governmental bonds. They understand that if you give Greek bonds an 80% "haircut" that this "haircut" is taken, not by the banks, but by the bond holders themselves. They understand that ECB and IMF imposed "austerity" measures never come with any cost to the banks. No, such "austerity" is always shouldered by the broader populace. Always. They know that the approaches and policies used by the banks and governments that promote "austerity" have never, ever worked to anyone's advantage except to the advantage of the already rich. And they're very much concerned that Spain and Italy "austerity" will only increase already overly large unemployment numbers, thus putting pressure on government services which have been cut through "austerity". It's a very vicious cycle.
Another way must be found.
Will France be Reborn?
We were incredibly pleased to witness 2MILLION people showing up in the Bastille for a celebration of Francois Hollande's victory.
Maybe, just maybe, M. Hollande and his new government can show the world that it's OK to level the playing field and that it's the responsibility of government to tend to the care and feeding of it's citizenry and that the world does not revolve around the whims and greed of business-only welfare policies.
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