Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Will there always be a France?

Possibly not -- especially if the government is unable to ease the transition from university to workforce for young people. The biggest problems: lack of jobs, lack of entrepreneurial opportunity under the French semi-socialist system, lack of pay, high taxes.

According to the Foreign Ministry, there has been a 40% increase in the number of those registering at French consulates abroad since 1995. People are leaving for all sorts of reasons, of course, ranging from greater opportunities to higher salaries, from romantic entanglements to the search for a foreign utopia that may not exist. Two people leave France every day for tax reasons alone, according to a recent Senate report. But for the most part, those leaving are not wealthy retirees looking for a place in the sun; they are talented and ambitious young people in their 20s and 30s who have left because they felt they couldn't advance their careers at home, or because they were simply frustrated by the French system.

Worse yet for France, many of the emigres have no intent to return.

This is interesting to The Monk because Monkette and I are headed to Germany's former Westernmost satellite in a couple of weeks for a "babymoon" -- a last trip before junior/juniorette debuts outside the womb.

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