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**Damien** · 12-12-2018, 08:48

France isn't a socialist country but then no country currently is really. If there are it might be one of those South American ones like Cuba or Venezuela but I am not familiar enough with them to know.

If you accept that pretty much every country is a mixed economy with varying degrees of public and private ownership then France is more socialist than many but even then they have a lot of private enterprise, France is hardly a small economy, and they have private involvement in their public sector. Their healthcare system has more a mix of private/public/charity sectors than the NHS. They have private ambulances. You don't have healthcare 'free at the point of use' with a complicated system of public and private insurance which reimburses you for some things like GP visits for which you pay.

As Hugh said the Americans think everyone and everything in Europe is socialist. By any European meaning of the word then France is a socially democratic, but not socialist, country.

---------- Post added at 08:48 ---------- Previous post was at 08:45 ----------

I don't think it really matters to Pierre's broader point about people wanting things without paying for them though. It's just not something that uniquely applies to socialist countries.

12-12-2018, 08:48	#24
Damien Remoaner Cable Forum Team Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 32,799	Re: Paris in Lockdown due to Protests France isn't a socialist country but then no country currently is really. If there are it might be one of those South American ones like Cuba or Venezuela but I am not familiar enough with them to know. If you accept that pretty much every country is a mixed economy with varying degrees of public and private ownership then France is more socialist than many but even then they have a lot of private enterprise, France is hardly a small economy, and they have private involvement in their public sector. Their healthcare system has more a mix of private/public/charity sectors than the NHS. They have private ambulances. You don't have healthcare 'free at the point of use' with a complicated system of public and private insurance which reimburses you for some things like GP visits for which you pay. As Hugh said the Americans think everyone and everything in Europe is socialist. By any European meaning of the word then France is a socially democratic, but not socialist, country. ---------- Post added at 08:48 ---------- Previous post was at 08:45 ---------- I don't think it really matters to Pierre's broader point about people wanting things without paying for them though. It's just not something that uniquely applies to socialist countries.