g m g D e s i g n . c o m

The French go on massive strikes due to president Sarkozy’s suggestion that the retirement age be raised from 60 to–61 or 62.

This is the kind of spoiled brat mentality that I don’t want to happen to the US. While some believe that capitalism eventually degrades into socialism (to some degree), perhaps Fabian socialism degrades into something like the diseased French economy (or eventually, something far worse).

And what are the negative externalities of a faltering economy? In the case of the French, an inability to absorb millions of immigrants and the car burnings and other crime that results from millions of idle hands.

The state of Florida has a “public option” for home insurance, per the MR blog site (an economic blog). Like the proposed federal “public option” for health care (i.e., medical insurance), the Floridian home insurance option competes directly with private insurance and drove out a major national insurer from the state (for home insurance; that insurer still insures autos).

Bottom line:

In Florida, the public option has meant a substantial socialization of insurance, subsidization of the public option by those who take a private option, and the creation of a fiscally-unsound public insurance company despite the subsidy.