[C22] France in the 2140s
Oct. 7th, 2005 06:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldEntering the 2140s, France remains one of the richest countries in the world, and among the most technologically advanced. These economic assets, combined with France's population of nearly 93 million people and a moderately profitable collection of colonies scattered throughout near-Sol interstellar space with a combined population of almost 1.7 million people, make France a considerable power, economic and otherwise. GDP per capita growth is still fairly slow, thanks to high population growth and an economy that has only recently begun to benefit from reforms, but France isn't too far behind its immediate European neighbours.
France's biggest problem, apart from the question of how it can properly support its interstellar colonies, involves the economic success of the rest of the world. Convergence really does work in the 22nd century, and all manner of 20th century Third World nations are quickly approaching or surpassing France's GDP. Already, Nigeria is on a level with France. How can France avoid being overshadowed? Its high GDP per capita--two and a half times greater than that of the United States of 2005, incidentally--will ensure that French consumers will remain important, but how much longer can France and the other mid-size European powers stay decisively ahead? Will they become second- or third-rate powers by the time of the game's conclusion? Stay tuned.
France's biggest problem, apart from the question of how it can properly support its interstellar colonies, involves the economic success of the rest of the world. Convergence really does work in the 22nd century, and all manner of 20th century Third World nations are quickly approaching or surpassing France's GDP. Already, Nigeria is on a level with France. How can France avoid being overshadowed? Its high GDP per capita--two and a half times greater than that of the United States of 2005, incidentally--will ensure that French consumers will remain important, but how much longer can France and the other mid-size European powers stay decisively ahead? Will they become second- or third-rate powers by the time of the game's conclusion? Stay tuned.
