Are the social benefits gained by Europeans, and financed by emerging countries, an overweening imperialistic claim? Who other than populist nationalists can ultimately defend them?

Thanks to the internet, the world is ONE. Cultures are gradually converging. Not that they could disappear in a Hollywood type of fusion, it clearly appears from the web that the peoples’ new expectations are the same everywhere. I noticed this a long time ago among our Romanian, Moldovan and Vietnamese developers. The global village, a popular expression during the early 2000s, is now a reality. How could we not be happy about this?
Of course, from a less positive perspective, the explosion of the western public debt bubble will contribute to the convergence of the economic situations of formerly rich countries with those of developing countries. This debt, withdrawn from the trading surplus of developing countries, which are still financing what the French call “acquis”, their social benefits (are we, in fact, buying annuities on credit?) is, first of all, the result of the confiscation of riches produced by Chinese, Brazilian, Russian employees, and many others. After being recycled by financial markets, this money coming from the East and South finances European pensions, reduction in work hours, instead of paying employees and financing their education and health infrastructures, their houses, their right to consumption, and thus reestablishing Western economic competitiveness.

In this context, the preservation of our social gains is becoming an exaggerated claim of tapping into the riches of others who work more and sometimes better. Yes, social claims in today’s France represent a nationalist attitude proven by facts, as if the French had a right to better conditions by putting in a smaller effort than others on account of history and a (Western, European ?) sense of history. The triple A, this continuous and inexpensive tapping into the riches of others, is a form of post-colonialism, undoubtedly one of the last avatars of a Western imperialism at the end of its road. By simply reading economic facts we realize that the triple A, designed and managed by and for Western institutions, is a political imperialism. How else could France, the USA, the UK, Japan or even Germany obtain the triple A, with their current debt equity ratio?

Don’t tell me it isn’t true; because if this manna were to be stopped tomorrow, either our social bodies would suspend payment after a few days, or the euro, the franc, the German mark would collapse in a few days, bringing the litre of petrol to 10 euros, as well as the loaf of bread, sugar and products manufactured outside Europe… The lender countries, finally wealthy following their work efforts, would then resort to the same raw materials as us, to a considerably greater extent. You may notice that this is already a reality. In fact, it is not essential in the recent events in Tunisia where the people has begun to revolt out of hunger and because inflation on raw materials was becoming unbearable… reasons that are a lot stronger than the establishment of democracy (which I support with all my heart).

Why should then progressive people of all sides not consider a review and audit of their value system, accepting to face the numerous positive effects of globalization? If regulated and, above all, understood, globalization can bridge the most unbearable gaps and put an end to the tyranny of a 2000-year old Western imperialism over the world.
Don’t they risk falling into the nationalist trap and claim, in the name of social gains, the maintenance of a completely iniquitous world financial status? Who else than the beneficiaries of populism can, in the end, give this speech?

There is a solution, based on an old Western and Christian value: work. If French and European citizens want a social system, they will have to pay for it themselves, as part of a collective and lucid ambition, by placing work at the centre of everything and eliminate the principle of “social acquis” (a French tropism) and that of financial speculation (an English tropism). Both of them are immoral consequences of a search for unjustified income and idleness, be they gained by exploiting the work of other nations or on the equity markets.

This article was inspired by Jean Viard, a Sociologist and Research Director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research – the January 16th issue of Journal du Dimanche.