Conclusion - Why France Will Always Be Better Than America

Hello all, as a special supplement to my travel blog, I'd like to offer a few reasons why I believe every American must go to Paris at least once - if for no other reason than to see what they are missing. Americans, don't believe the rhetoric and the propaganda. CNN and often your own government has lied to you - you are not better than the France. In fact, you don't even come close:

1. I know you don't want to hear this, but first of all, if weren't for France sending thousands of troops to America to support General Washington during your American Revolution, you would still be paying taxes to London. You would have lost - period.
   
2. They have the best food in the world, bar none. Don't even bother America, you don't come close. (P.S. French fries and French toast don't count as French food)
   
3. The people of France drink more wine, eat more fatty foods and smoke more than the average American. In fact, the verified oldest woman who ever lived, Jeanne Calment, lived to be 122 years - in France. She smoked until she was 117, ate a kilogram of chocolate a week and and wine every day, and saw the Eiffel Tower being built. And darn it, her fellow Frenchmen also live to be 79.6 years on average. It's 77.5 years in the US. What would you do with an extra 2.1 years on your life?
4. Why? Because they have universal health care for everyone (PS - so does Canada). No insurance costs, etc. They even have 24-hour doctors, in a service called SOS Medicin, that will come to your house day or night for a house call - for free. They offer preventative medicine and doctors actually get bonuses if their patients on average become less sick and need the system less.
5. They have childcare that costs as little as $1 a day, but which employs some of the mostly highly trained childcare professionals in Europe.
6. You get a paid day if you move from one home to another. It's a national law.
   
7. If you worked there, you'd get 5 weeks vacation, and a 35 hour maximum work week. That's also a national law. On the year you get married, you get an extra 7 days for your honeymoon - paid.
8. When you have a new child in France, the government will send a specialist to your house to teach you to houseproof your home and be a better parent (how to change diapers, how to get them to sleep, etc.) - for free. They will even come in and do your laundry for you, and even cook for your family up to 2 days a week.
   
9. If you happen to live there, you get a college education - for free.
10. Oh and by the way, contrary to what you probably think when you read this, they aren't taxed to death there. For income between 24,872 - 66,679.30 euros (about $42,000-90,000), it's 30% taxation.
    
11. And the biggest myth of all about the French, that the American media has created for us - France is not some useless, sniveling wimp of a country with a weak military. Like America, if they need to defend themselves, they have nuclear missiles - hundreds of them. France is also a voting member of the UN Security Council, so your say in the world is no greater or lesser than theirs. The French military is not weak. They have 259,050 current troops, 410,000 reserve troops and 100,000 paramilitary troops. That's 760,000 soldiers total. America has 3.2 million troops of various kinds - not quite 5 times as much, but your country's population is 6 times bigger. Who's better protected?
    
12. The United States is drowning in crime. France has 17 murders for every 1 million people last year. The United States has 42 for every one million - that's over 2.5 times as many. France has 56,000 prisoners out of 65 million citizens - 0.08%. The US has 330 million citizens - and over 1 million of them are in custody - that's 0.3% (or about 4 times as many per capita).
    

There's only one reason your government and media wants you to hate the French - because they are afraid you might like their way of doing things, and want real change. Go to France, see how they live, and then decide if you still have the greatest standard of living in the world. Guess what - I can give you a hint and save the airfare - you don't.

Why am I writing this? Because for 40 years I was brainwashed by the American media into believing, just like most Americans, that the French were dirty, ignorant, snobbish and wimps in the world. Having been to France now, and having travelled to 41 states and nearly every major American city, I'm now convinced Americans don't have a clue what they're talking about, on virtually any subject.

Now my fellow Canadians, a final thought. You also should visit France as well, but for only one important reason:

1. To have a good time, eat some good frood and see something new and different.
   

We don't have anything to prove. We know there's no place like home and of course we're better - we just don't go around bragging about it.