[clowntable]

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Their politics wasn't originally a failure, they have just failed to reform unlike many other countries. Thus they have ended up in a situation where the politics is out of touch with the current reality. Other European countries saw the warning signs, but i.e. France and Germany just ran straight into them. In both countries they still lack public awareness of the magnitude of the problems and thus politicians calling for big changes aren't getting elected. Their culture is not willing to take impulses from other cultures, so the "enligthment" is a slow process.

In the US you are in the beginning of the same process, unsustainable fiscal and foreign policy out of touch with current reality and unwillingness to take impulses from abroad, heading into the same trap. Your mentality is more similar than it is different. So I advice not to mock them as you will end up with a foot in your own mouth.

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I tend to disagree. France and Germany are extremly different from what happened over tha last years.
In Germany, costs of reuniting have hindered the country a lot during a period when other European countries invested in improvements of all kinds.
France while they did a lot of things wrong at least managed to get incentives for reproduction out and thus they won't face the massive overaging as other European countries (i.e. Germany)

p.s.: I'm German and live/work in France so I assume I have a pretty good picture of what's going on.