Originally Posted by host

From the OP article:

The French are significantly more productive per capita, than Americans, they are more successful at controlling the dominance of the wealthy over every one else, than the bulk of the population in the US has been, and they live in a country more popular with tourists than we do....so it's hard not to admire them and give them credit where it is due....and to ask each other in the US, WTF is wrong with us? Why are we so lacking in employer and government provided benefits, in leisure time, and in financial and social security for our families, especially in time of unforseen and unplanned crisis, like sudden serious illness? Why have we so cooperatively ceded so much of what the average man in French enjoys, to the wealthiest and most powerful? Some of us even take satisfaction in the way things are here. Did I mention that the French enjoy balanced trade, while we borrow $800 billion per year to finance our imports?