The French are pissed

moxin

If that happened here, the O'Brien controlled media would have called them Ra heads.

Tail Docker

hfallada wrote: »

France has refused to cut its deficit and still continues with its ridiculously generous welfare system. It has resulted in the country having minimal growth for several years and high unemployment. Where as Germany has slashed its welfare system and kept its budget in line. Its has had decent growth throughout the recession and low unemployment. The Germany dont protest over petty BS like french but get on with life

Some people think we should have been more little the French with protesting than listening to the Germans way of resolving the crisis. But we listened to the German and have the strongest economic growth in the EU. Plus we have a smaller budget deficit than France. I would listen to the economic powerhouse Germany, than the French with their failing economy

The German economy is equally as fecked. Don't believe the hype.

Tail Docker

Tail Docker wrote: »

The German economy is equally as fecked. Don't believe the hype.

The Germans are better at hiding the issues, anyway much of their success has been by being clever with the rules.

For example manufacturing a "(insert stuff here)" by just putting two Chinese made sub-assemblies together with one screw and packaging it up = "Made in Germany".

Average wages have been dropping in Germany for years, even after excluding the reunification factors.

hfallada

Tail Docker wrote: »

The German economy is equally as fecked. Don't believe the hype.

Its not through. It is one of the biggest exporters in the world. There unemployment is one of the lowest in the EU. Their wages are **** because they keep them low to remain competitive. Remember when we kept increasing our wages and eventually firms stopped investing as much as they used to in Ireland

Red Clover

hfallada wrote: »

Its not through. It is one of the biggest exporters in the world. There unemployment is one of the lowest in the EU. Their wages are **** because they keep them low to remain competitive. Remember when we kept increasing our wages and eventually firms stopped investing as much as they used to in Ireland

Germany's current relative economic success is largely dependent on cheap labour from southern Europe. The countries that were bankrupted by German banks are exporting their citizens to work as cheap labour in the country. A double whammy. Don't forget Germany is one of the few countries in Europe which has no minimum wage. France on the other hand has the highest minimum wage in Europe. The best health service. The best education system. The best foods and wines in the world. Where would you prefer to live.?

CelticRambler

Tail Docker wrote: »

The German economy is equally as fecked. Don't believe the hype.

There's fecked and fecked. Sure, Germany's economy is stagnant, but the Germans are realistic and accepted drastic wage reductions to keep their factories running. In France, the unions repeatedly refuse to agree to job cuts or wage reductions, even if it means destroying their employer. Just up the road from me, a German-owned company recently announced that they're laying off 338 of 450 workers on a French production line. Why? Because it's loss-making - a perfectly valid business reason. But the reaction locally, instead of looking for ways to make the unit profitable, has been "you're a rich German firm, you can afford to pay us twice as much as our German counterparts"

It's the same mentality at Air France: their pilots went on strike for two weeks, losing the company €350m of direct sales (all of the company's forecast profit for 2014) and forward bookings are down 5% because customers have switched to alternative carriers. What happens this week? The main union involved takes AF to court demanding payment for its striking workers on the grounds that they were only on strike for the first day of their 3-5d rostered duty, i.e. the day they should have flown the 'plane to the far side of the world, but they were "available for work" for the remaining days even though the flight was cancelled.

Then there are the farcical stories of SNCM, SeaFrance, Continental ....

And that's before starting on the situation for people who want to work for themselves. I'm helping someone try to figure out how they can be liable for 5200€ social charges (including a pension contribution of 3366€) on total takings of 3000€. This is not a unique case - spend a bit of time on any French entreprise forum and you'll see that these kinds of crazy demands are a regular occurrence - understandable when you've got as many as 14 different quangos trying to get a share of your forecast earnings on the basis of a "forfait de base" ...

But you're not allowed try and earn a bit more by keeping your shop open till ten pm on weekdays, you're not allowed clear your nearly out-of-date stock by selling it off cheap (unless it's during one of two defined periods during the year), and your part-time staff have to be guaranteed at least 24 hours work a week, but the full-timers can't work more than 39 hours ...

And so it goes on and on and on and on ... Fortunately the roads aren't shyte, so it's easy to get out quickly.

corner of hells

I've French second world war deactivated rifle for sale , it was never fired and dropped only once.

IvyTheTerrible

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Now that;s how you protest. enjoy your water charges.

Well with all our protests in France, we STILL pay water charges.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

Well with all our protests in France, we STILL pay water charges.

Why would you expect the government to backtrack on water charges based on something that's happening in France...?

Duck's hoop

corner of hells wrote: »

I've French second world war deactivated rifle for sale , it was never fired and dropped only once.

As you've an obvious interest in the period, please remind me what Ireland's position was.

biko

Jackeens making surrender jokes is hilarious.

I like it that the French are going nuts. That country still has some activists left. Here people scorn activism and moan in After Hours instead.

losthorizon

RobYourBuilder wrote: »

The French have the best military record in modern history. Stop parroting English and American anti French nonsense.

Very true. The English consider Dunkirk a victory for gods sake. They left the French fighting by themselves for a week fighting a much stronger enemy.

One of the few times they did beat the French at Waterloo not many British soldiers were involved.

There was a reason France had an empire in Europe and England didnt.

Streetwalker

Streetwalker wrote: »

If only the Irish had half the courage of the French maybe we wouldn't keep getting screwed over by our supposed betters.

Aye, France is all rainbows.

CelticRambler wrote: »

It's not just about the farmers. You'd need to live here to really understand just how bad it is for just about everyone - except the politicians, of course, and their cronies. Thousands of vacant teacher positions, hospitals a breaking point, near-zero recruitment (80% of jobs created in the last two years are self-employed), record numbers of bankruptcies, property prices at their lowest for fifteen/twenty years and still people can't sell, emigration at an all time high, VAT up, property tax up, electricity prices up, gas prices up, age of retirement up, inflation up ...

France is an economic basket case, has needed three bailouts in the last two year (on the quiet, naturally) to pay its civil servant wages for the month and is desperately in need of a visit from the Troika.

The only real question is will it be just before or just after the next presidential and parliamentary elections in 2017.

B-b-but I thought it was Ireland that was terrible?

IvyTheTerrible

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Why would you expect the government to backtrack on water charges based on something that's happening in France...?

I'm not.

corner of hells

Duck's hoop wrote: »

As you've an obvious interest in the period, please remind me what Ireland's position was.

Same as it is now , 53 degrees 00' north and 80 degrees 00' West.

corner of hells

corner of hells wrote: »

Same as it is now , 53 degrees 00' north and 80 degrees 00' West.

Are you sure?

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/53%C2%B000%2700.0%22N+80%C2%B000%2700.0%22W/@53,-80,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

I'm not.

Then what's the connection between protesting in France and paying water charges in Ireland?

Arbitrary

chatperche wrote: »

well I guess French people are fair game in this PC world. If you replaced a tenth of what is being said on this thread with the word gay or black instead of French there would be an uproar!

Every single thread on AH relating to anything about France or the French has the same underlying tone. But you know what, the French are just as guilty of doing the same thing, how they refer to the English as Roast beef springs to mind.

I guess if you read Aussie forums you'd probably constantly read comments about us Irish being alcoholics and street brawlers.

Casual xenophobia seems to be a more of an acceptable social norm over racism. It doesn't make it right though. It's usually spouted by a ignorant and ethnocentric minority of each nation.

IvyTheTerrible

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Then what's the connection between protesting in France and paying water charges in Ireland?

You yourself said "That's how you protest. Enjoy your water charges". I'm just saying that we might be able to protest in France but it hasn't stopped us paying water charges and not all protests are successful.

CelticRambler

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

You yourself said "That's how you protest. Enjoy your water charges". I'm just saying that we might be able to protest in France but it hasn't stopped us paying water charges ....

... or property tax! (aswell as a separate living-in-your-property tax)

... or road tolls

... or top-up health insurance

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

You yourself said "That's how you protest. Enjoy your water charges". I'm just saying that we might be able to protest in France but it hasn't stopped us paying water charges and not all protests are successful.

I presume you meant "protest like in France", but no - we can't. Protest like that has never happened in Ireland. The Irish are not capable of it and if they were, there would probably be too many sitting in bars, rolling their eyes and denouncing it. And then moaning about having to pay water charges.

Enjoy.

corner of hells

Deleted User wrote: »

Are you sure?

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/53%C2%B000%2700.0%22N+80%C2%B000%2700.0%22W/@53,-80,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0

Not at all , I guessed .I was never any good at that whatchmaography.

RobYourBuilder

Red Clover wrote: »

Don't forget Germany is one of the few countries in Europe which has no minimum wage.

They are introducing one. €8.50 per hour as of January 1st.

Frank Lee Midere

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

I presume you meant "protest like in France", but no - we can't. Protest like that has never happened in Ireland. The Irish are not capable of it and if they were, there would probably be too many sitting in bars, rolling their eyes and denouncing it. And then moaning about having to pay water charges.

Enjoy.

The French didn't protest water or property taxes because they don't mind pay for stuff they consume. They protest the important stuff.

If Paris had irelands rental laws and the same increase in prices and dispossessions of renters we've seen in Dunlin it would burn.

Frank Lee Midere

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

I wonder how long it would have been before British surrender had the Nazis been able to launch a blitzkrieg across land.

The British army did retreat in France of course.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

The French didn't protest water or property taxes because they don't mind pay for stuff they consume. They protest the important stuff.

If Paris had irelands rental laws and the same increase in prices and dispossessions of renters we've seen in Dunlin it would burn.

Maybe so, but Dublin has Ireland's rental laws and increases prices and yet the city still remains unscathed and blissfully unaware.

There's also the point that if the French might not have water or property taxes (and I'm not entirely sure that they don't) then maybe it's because they know what would happen if they tried to introduce them?

Iwasfrozen

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

The French didn't protest water or property taxes because they don't mind pay for stuff they consume. They protest the important stuff.

If Paris had irelands rental laws and the same increase in prices and dispossessions of renters we've seen in Dunlin it would burn.

France is a basket case. The unions are chocking the economy. They are not a country we should seek to emulate.

A Margaret Thatcher figure would sort out the economy but would probably be assassinated in office!

IvyTheTerrible

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Maybe so, but Dublin has Ireland's rental laws and increases prices and yet the city still remains unscathed and blissfully unaware.

There's also the point that if the French might not have water or property taxes (and I'm not entirely sure that they don't) then maybe it's because they know what would happen if they tried to introduce them?

We have water charges in France, also, each property/apartment is subject to residential tax (to be paid by the person living in the property, whether owner or renter) and a property tax to be paid by the owners.

John_Rambo

biko wrote: »

Jackeens making surrender jokes is hilarious.

I like it that the French are going nuts. That country still has some activists left. Here people scorn activism and moan in After Hours instead.

? Where did this come from? What jackeens? Sure all you're doing is moaning and bitching about Dublin and Dubliners (as usual) on after hours! Were you at any of the protests?

Your a classic keyboard warrior Biko! Pissing and moaning about people like yourself.

CelticRambler

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

If Paris had irelands rental laws and the same increase in prices and dispossessions of renters we've seen in Dunlin it would burn.

Paris has the same rental laws as the rest of France, which includes a moratorium on kicking tenants out for five or six months of the year. This means your tenant can stop paying rent in October, start stripping the property of everything and anything worth selling and there's not a damn thing the landlord can do about it until the government announces the end of the moratorium the following spring. What does that do? It makes sure the city is full of unlet, empty property because many "accidental landlords" don't want that kind of hassle.

There is one good thing about the French letting rules, though: you're not allowed describe any room of less than 9m² as a bedroom. If that Ireland adopted that rule, I think 90% of the apartments in Dublin would have to be downgraded by at least one bedroom!

Oh, and if you (or your son or daughter or both) run a little internet business from your/their bedroom, you have to pay tax on it. Mammy, Daddy, Son & Daughter, all trying their luck with a start-up business each = 4x property tax for the sittingroom + property tax for the house + living-in-it tax because they're living in it. And you think Fine Gael-Labour are milking the Irish populace ...