[C22] France in the early 2160s

[rfmcdonald]

The country is booming. The pragmatic policies of the new coalition government--a highly and increasingly popular government, incidentally--has ensured that GDP per capita has grown by a fifth in the past five years. With so much more well-spent money, France has been gleefully going about, doing things like building a prosperous Titan colony, accelerating the arcologisation of the French population, and the designing new colonies on Mars and in Alpha Centauri in association with its European allies. It's very good indeed to be French now that the malaise of the past years has been shaken off.

Yes, fine, it's true that the French economy has become so efficient that it doesn't have much money at all left for surplus spending. The demiurge does say that France must either engage in cutbacks, increase taxes, or stop building grand projets. "Historic experience suggests the French, when presented with economic choices requiring something to be sacrificed, are never happy."

Me, I'm thinking lots more new arcologies, and at least one more terraformed planet. Allons les enfants de la patrie ...