The benefits of socialism, French style

Americans regularly hear from leftists about the wonders of Europe and it's welfare states. As in Minneapolis, people there are eager to pay higher taxes, because it means the government will take care of them when needed (Remember the "Happy to pay for a better Minnnesota signs"?). Given the oppressive taxes, one would at least expect a fair return. Apparently not, as seen in this BBC report "Living in squalor by the Eiffel Tower".

Reporter Carolyn Wyatt:

I have seen poverty across the former Soviet Union, in Afghanistan and southern Iraq. Yet the state of this slum in the middle of one of Europe's richest cities comes as a physical shock.

Or maybe the benefits do not accrue to "foreigners".

When Fofanna Satou and her husband came here from Ivory Coast, they held in their hearts a similar dream, albeit a more modest one. What they wanted was a country where they could live in peace and raise their children without fear of civil war. All they wanted was a job and a decent home to live in.

So now you can pay burdensome taxes in France and still live in squalor? Only if you're the underclass (in a "classless" society).

Paris City Council has started renovating some of the tumbledown buildings. But it is a slow process and property developers are more lucrative clients than the poor.

Liberte, Equalite, Fraternite!