France has universal healthcare, tougher environmental regulations, and 5 weeks of paid vacation for all working people. I hardly call that a "squandering" of resources.
Fighting an oil war in the desert is closer to that.
France also based many of them on the idea that we have man-made global warming.
"5 weeks of paid vacation for all working people"
I would rather leave that up to companies and have 30%+ more of my taxes.
"Fighting an oil war in the desert is closer to that."
You gave me 3 simple examples. Every government in every country is inefficient. France somehow believes that those inefficiencies will go away by taking away more money from its citizens.
I'm not a fan of monopoly, but I'd rather have a monopoly that works in the interest of getting all patients healthcare and bargaining down consumer prices, rather than a monopoly that creates higher costs to feed the profits of providers.
5 weeks of paid vacation for all working people ... I would rather leave that up to companies
I would rather have the vacation time. The problem is that most companies exist in a competive market, productivity is not absolute, but relative. If our company unilaterally allowed everyone to take 5 weeks vacation, the revenue would not fall 5% based on the lost productivity. It might fall 20 or 30% or more, because we would lose market share to our competitors, and we are fighting in a winner-takes-all market. But if all companies in our market had to offer 5 weeks vacation, and this was enforced, then we would all be on the same footing, and all would be better off. It's a classic collective action problem. And the way to solve a collective action problem is that you form an organization and agree on binding rules with punishment for defecting - this is called a government.
I guess many people here on HN aren't interested in intelligent discussion, only down voting. I would expect nothing less from a person that believes in near total government control.
Fighting an oil war in the desert is closer to that.