The French government is in turmoil. There have been 5 different Prime Ministers since 2024, the most recent one resigning a few weeks into the job. All have left for the same reason. The French state is becoming ever more indebted paying for its citizens’ welfare entitlements, but politicians cannot bring themselves to cut them or tax more. Now the country is close to a debt crisis, with spiralling interest payments.
The situation in France is acute, but other developed nations like the US, Japan, and Britain are also close to the same crisis, and for the same reasons. It’s a structural demographic shift. The ageing of populations across the developed world is no longer a distant challenge. It is now a live crisis, and its financial, political, and social effects are beginning to cascade. Existing solutions to this problem - like mass immigration - have run their course.
A Debt Jubilee is the cancellation of all debts of a certain class, and they’ve been carried out many times in history, going back to ancient times. Is it an idea that is due for a revival?
1. France, the Ageing Population, and the Future of State Viability…
I wish there was a segment of society with way more than they could ever need. That would be really nice to dip into something lile that. Too bad absolutely no one has way more than enough in this day and age.
It buys a couple of years, at the cost of decades destruction of industry.
“That’s what Elon Musk said and I beleive him”
Belgium’s just a few years behind. Demographics explains the costs (healthcare, pensions).
But it’s a double whammer as simultaneously there’s been decades of anti-industrial and anti-scientific policy that also decreased prosperity, economic growth and taxable income.
Soon they’ll implement policy against capital flight I imagine. Literally trapping their own citizens. Failing economies always do.
Defaulting on debt is certainly possible. It has consequences such as you become a pariah in international trade. That might be a price one’s willing to pay if they’re mostly self-sufficient, live with less and regain trust over decades.
And people will get angry at the politicians. For sure it’s impossible that their own decisions led to this!
