Where France Goes

A while back we started talking about all the financial problems Greece was having. But as the world dug deeper into the Grecian problems we started to see that other country's balance sheets were very similar...and we wondered aloud if the same problems would soon start happening in Spain, France, UK....and ultimately the USA.

We know France is now engulfed in riots. Why? Because the government asked them to work until age 62 instead of 60...and that's on top of French workers only having a 35 hour work week and getting 6 weeks paid vacation.

So, much of the rest of the Western world may be looking at France as crazy for breaking out in riots over such a little thing. "Hey!!...you dudes are out of money and been living a lifestyle you can't afford...so work a little longer."

But is that same behavior soon coming to America? When you take away an entitlement...you will make some people VERY unhappy.

Americans arriving in Paris these days will notice that France's planes, trains and automobiles are all being slowed or stopped by nationwide protests over President Nicolas Sarkozy's proposal to raise the retirement age by . . . all of two years. Protesters are blockading refineries, truckers clog the roads, and yesterday air-traffic controllers walked off the job. Hundreds of schools around the country are closed, leaving students free to declare their solidarity with pensioners.

The larger issue is whether France and other Western nations will grapple with their entitlement obligations before it's too late, or sink under their weight, dragged down by intransigent government-employee unions.

Sound familiar, Californians?

The obvious lesson for America is to avoid the mistake of imposing such unaffordable entitlements in the first place. Ronald Reagan helped the U.S. dodge that fate in the 1980s, but President Obama has put us back on the road to fiscal perdition. Europe shows what happens when entitlements are too big and expensive to afford—but also too big and entrenched to reform.

See it here; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575561682510521208.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

As we have said many times...what do you think is going to happen when California starts bouncing welfare checks in LA County? Do you believe those folks are going to sit up and say, "You know?...it's about time I take responsibility for myself. I'm gonna go find a job and start caring for me and my family!"

OR....do you believe they will be more prone to start tipping over cars and burning things until the government gives them what they believe they deserve?

And where do you think that government is going to get the money to keep handing out welfare?

Please continue praying for this country. I am getting more and more convinced everyday that no political party will be able to save us. We are simply too far over the cliff.