Name: France’s Economy About to Get Ugly - But Not for the Reason You Think
Uploaded: 2025-10-09T18:29:16.000Z
Duration: 16 min 14 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Present continuous

Over the last five years, France has gone through five different prime ministers and the last one has lasted less than a month because the French economy is collapsing, which is leading to a complete collapse of the French government.

The comparative

Fixing the French economy is way more difficult than most people imagine.

And there isn't a single politician in France who is ready to take the responsibility to restructure that economy.

But if France is not going to do anything anytime soon, then the crisis is going to be way bigger than most people can possibly comprehend.

And that crisis could lead to the end of the European Union.

If you think that I am exaggerating, let me show you.

France has been spending far more than its earning for the last 30 to 40 years.

But in the recent years that got way worse.

Since 2020, France is overspending and running a huge deficit.

In 2025, France has earned a little over $1 Trillion euros, but

it spent a little over 1.7 trillion euros.

That deficit is not going to be solved anytime soon.

The deficit currently is about 170 billion euros, which is a lot of money.

If you compare it to the United States, that's not a lot, but

the US GDP is over $30 trillion, while the French GDP is a little over $3 trillion.

In fact, even though that France has a smaller economy compared to the United Kingdom, the French government is spending much more than the UK government because the entire French economy is a state driven economy.

You can even say that it's a socialistic country.

That's why you never heard about great companies emerging out of France.

All the large companies in France are state driven companies.

It is impossible to build a tech company in France.

The AI revolution is not happening in France unless the French economy or the French government is going to interfere and will fund a certain company in order to succeed.

In fact, if you look at the budget of the French government, you will suddenly see something seriously bad.

First of all, the public revenue or the revenue that the government is collecting in relation to the GDP is about 50%.

Half of the French GDP is the government collecting taxes from its citizens.

What drives the French economy is the government spending that stands at around 60%.

60% of the French GDP is being driven by the government spending.

So if you remove government spending, the French GDP will stop growing.

And the French GDP is not growing as much as the Chinese GDP at about 5 to 7%.

It's not even matching the United States.

In fact, if you compare that to the United States, only a third of the US GDP is being driven by the government spending, even though that the US government is running a $2 trillion deficit and is spending about $7 trillion.

Even in Japan, where the government intervenes a lot in the economy and the entire Japanese economy is being driven by the state, that ratio is about 41%.

Now you can literally understand how the French government or the French economy works.

The French economy is basically one giant corporation that is called the French government that driving the entire economy.

It's not privately owned corporations like in the United States.

And that's why you never heard a single French company coming out from France that they're dominating the world.

The French government provides some of the best welfare programs, as if the entire French government serves people.

Now on one side it is great, but on the other side, someone has to pay for that.

In France, everybody is insured and 80% of medical expenses is being paid by the government.

So as long as you're resident of France, as long as you are a citizen of France, you don't have to worry about medical bills.

It is completely covered by the French government.

Unemployment benefits could last for up to two years and 75% of your previous income.

So if you're making $100,000 and now you're unemployed and you're looking for for your dream job, the government of France will pay you up to 70% of your previous income, which is literally one of the highest in the world.

There aren't many countries that can provide you with anything even close to that.

Just compare that to the United States and suddenly you realize how generous the French welfare program is.

Pensions in France could be as much as 60% of your income.

So if you used to make $100,000, you, you can expect $60,000 of pension in France.

At the end of the day, your Social Security benefits on average is around $2,000 monthly or about $24,000.

The best or the maximum amount of Social Security benefits that you can receive in the US is about $5,000.

In fact, the French welfare program is so generous that it provides monthly allow families that have children.

The French government is like, you have children.

We are Going to pay you money in the United States is slightly different.

You are going that the government is providing you with tax deductions for having children.

In France, the government is directly paying you to have children.

The more children you have, the more the government is going to pay you.

Can you imagine something like that in the United States?

There aren't many countries that provide anything close to that.

The minimum wage in France is about $14 an hour.

Even though that France is not even close economically to the United States.

The minimum wage in France is double that is in the United States.

Now you can see how the government is protecting the French citizens.

But you have to understand that this is not for free.

There is nothing that is called as free lunch.

I either they're going to be very high taxes or the government will have to borrow a lot of money to ensure that is happening.

The French welfare program expanded back in 1970s and 1990s.

And because of this welfare program and because the government has to spend so much to ensure that these welfare programs are working properly, it is running such a huge debt to GDP ratio that stands at around 114%.

It's literally one of the highest debt to GDP ratios in the world and the European Union.

And that is without even considering that France has one of the highest taxes in the world.

The French taxation system is very different than from the United States.

So I'm gonna try to explain it by giving you an example.

It's much easier to understand that let's have a $50,000 income job.

But in France, €50,000 is literally a really great income.

So if you're creating a job that pays €50,000 in income, how much taxes do you think you're going to pay?

The employee is going to pay almost €13,000 in taxes.

That is way higher than the United States.

But besides you paying taxes, the employer or the company, the business that created that job or also has to pay taxes.

In the United States, the payroll tax is being paid not just by you, but

your employer has to match it at 6.2% as well.

But in the case of France, your employer with this kind of income has to pay a €16,000.

So your employer is paying much more taxes for creating that job.