French Election and Its Impact on the US
Following the launch of LifeBahn on July 4, we are excited to continue our daily posts, exploring the world through the LifeBahn lens.
Just as the AutoBahn is a road for cars in Germany, LifeBahn is the path to prosperity for people. Through the LifeBahn lens, we see only human beings. We are blind to socialism, capitalism, sexism, racism, or any other -ism but humanism. We believe that:
Recent news highlighted an interesting development in the French elections. While it appeared that the far right was going to win in the first round of voting, the leftist coalition actually won in the final election.
This event may not seem relevant to most of us, but like it or not, this election, just like the US election or any other national election, affects all of us. The dynamics and their impact on us are very similar to those we discussed in our previous posts on July 4th and 5th. These elections, although portrayed otherwise, are not really about the individuals or parties but rather about how they spend our resources, specifically monetary resources - our tax dollars. In today's globally interconnected and interdependent world, how each country spends its money affects other countries, especially as "defense spending" accounts for much of the budget of most countries
The chart on the right shows the French debt as it has steadily increased and is projected to increase through 2029 – which simply means how much more money than its income the government has borrowed. In this case, Macron and his party, the centrists, are more like the Tories, and the Left coalition is more like the Labor Party.
If we look at it simply, the left is the equivalent of Democrats in the US and Labor in the UK, and the right is like the Republicans in the US and the Tories in the UK. If we peel
away these labels, it boils down to the left representing the workers, and the public, and the right representing the employers
and industrialists. We like to simplify it even further to the oppressors and the oppressed. This perspective will help us understand various elections across the globe.
If we look at each nation’s economy the same way that we look at our own individual and family economy, it becomes much more understandable rather than getting bogged down in the nitty-gritty of economics, which only serves to confuse us.
Our family economics are very simple. We have income, usually wages for most families, and we have essential and non-essential expenses. If our income is less than our total expenses, we have three choices:
Increase our income somehow (usually a second job)
Reduce our non-essential expenses
Borrow money (usually CC debt) – which is the easiest but the most expensive solution.
It doesn't take Einstein to figure out that if you keep borrowing money, all you are doing is digging a bigger hole for yourself. If you know someone in this situation, what would you advise them?
So, why would we elect someone to manage our money who will get us deeper in debt? Unfortunately, this seems to be the trend in most countries. Governments keep increasing our debt to make themselves look good and make us feel better, while only a few, usually the already well-off, enjoy the benefits of this higher debt. Frankly, no matter whom we elect, they are all getting us deeper into debt. The choice we have is to determine who will hurt us less. In the UK's case, it was clear that over the last 14 years, the Tories were doing the country the most harm, especially under Boris (mini-Trump) Johnson with Brexit.
The bottom line is learning how to use your vote effectively by understanding what, not who, you are voting for. So, for me, even though under the Republicans or Tories it might appear that I am better off economically in the short term, I will, in fact, be worse off, especially the next generation, as they will be deeper in debt.
Remember: In a competitive environment, only a few succeed. Collaboration is the better way.
