This is the translation of an op-ed published by Jean-Philippe Delsol on August 24th, 2013 in the leading French newspaper “Le Figaro”.
In France, during the last 30 years, social spending went from 21% to 33%. It is the sign of an ever growing Big Government that is out of control and unbearable. Thus, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel pointed out, Europe “gathers 7% of the world population, 20% of the production and 50% of social spending”, and France has the spending leadership. According to the OECD, 60% of France’s spending is made in the social sector, i-e 33% of its GDP whereas Germany is spending 26.2% of its GDP in the social sector, the United Kingdom 23.8% and the OCDE average is at 22.1%.