France's birthday gift to 18y-olds: A subscription to the newspaper of their choice

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jMYtLJV_oGyGm7De9_uOKj0W2IKgD95SVKVO1

by daviday • 18 years ago

35 52 18 years ago

google.com

dhimes• 18 years ago

Let's see. How can I get the press to write nice things about me? Oh, I have an idea....

bingaman• 18 years ago

Still, not a bad idea (shit, it's working!)

helveticaman• 18 years ago

Awesome...I mean, sure, a part of me dislikes government anything, but if they have to promote education, this is a pretty sweet way of doing it.

corentin8• 18 years ago

What in hell makes people think that reading a French newspaper is in any way "education"?

We're not talking about "The Economist" here...

galactus3• 18 years ago

I almost never comment on this forum, but reading this just made me laugh/cringe. I lived in France for seven years and I now live in Canada (where I read mostly american magazines/newspapers). One of the things I miss from France is the quality of mainstream newspapers and magazines compared to what I get here. "The Economist" is such a superficial magazine compared to, say, Alternatives Economiques, which you can find in any, any french "tabac" (well, it's not exactly the same kind of magazine, but using "The Economist" as an example of a good magazine that the french could not produce outraged me).

Fortunately there is always Harper's and The Atlantic on this side of the ocean.

mynameishere• 18 years ago

In a speech to industry leaders, Sarkozy said it was legitimate for the state to consider the print media's economic situation.

"It is indeed its responsibility ... to make sure an independent, free and pluralistic press exists," he said.

...he then ate a baby and declared his responsibility to not corrupt children.

simon_kun2• 18 years ago

Does a state that shores up an ailing media form because of personal links and dresses it up as a "present for the children" not bother anyone a tiny bit? Newspapers are dead, get over it.

run4yourlives2• 18 years ago

Well, given auto-bailouts, what state isn't shoring up ailing businesses these days?

gravitycop4• 18 years ago

Automobiles still serve useful purposes. What useful purpose does print media serve?

gojomo• 18 years ago

Related idea: maybe we should stop collecting sales tax on books.

TV and the internet are great but long-form books seem to play a special role in the development of 'human capital' -- competence, expertise, and civil values.

corentin8• 18 years ago

To start with, in France, you'd have to remove price control on books...

jerf3• 18 years ago

This doesn't matter.

I have a "free" subscription to my local paper. In this case, this means my "free" subscription is tossed like so much litter on my driveway every few days and if I could stop it, I would. I certainly don't read it; it simply goes in the trash. About once a month, a headline catches my eye and I read it as far as I can without taking it out of the bag (too much work), then toss it.

Newspapers aren't dying because nobody can afford them... or lack access in any other way. This solves the wrong problem. 18yos are very aware of the state of newspapers and are unlikely to change their minds as the result of more information.

tjic• 18 years ago

It's not a gift to 18yr olds. It's a gift to the newspaper industry.

numair• 18 years ago

Perhaps this is an unpopular opinion, but most significantly wealthy people I know read the newspaper (usually, several newspapers), and I think keeping up-to-date on the world around you is an important part of being a successful member of society (regardless of whether we define that as monetary, intellectual, etc). As such, I would have to say that this is really a gift to the 18 year olds.

I often try to explain to my friends in Northern Europe (who are in their late teens, early 20s) that the average American doesn't read the newspaper. They really don't believe me, but then they start to think about it and realize that this is one of the reasons we have such a ridiculous political system. When you have a large populace that doesn't read, their source of news is entirely through sound bites; thus, everything becomes dumbed down and sensational (for example, Howard Dean yells at an event and is suddenly no longer a viable political candidate? WTF?).

You can't have a working democracy in a land of illiterates.

alaskamiller2• 18 years ago

I believe complacency to be more endemic than illiteracy in America. People consume news in a myriad of ways. Trying to say newspaper reading would resolve some problem is silly.

Tichy• 18 years ago

- why not read newspapers on the internet?

- newspapers are not in the business to inform, they are in the business of selling newspapers

- often newspapers are owned by entities with their own interests, who by use of the newspaper try to manipulate public opinion

timr2• 18 years ago

Very droll. Still, I'd rather prop up an industry that's designed to inform, educate and expose corruption in the world, than prop up industries that do little but feed our unsustainable, consumptive habits.

Given that at least 50% of the compelling things I read on this site originated in the New York Times, it strikes me as more than a bit ironic that so many of the comments here are dismissing the unfortunate fate of the news media. All the social networks in the world won't make up for the loss of our newspapers.

gaius4• 18 years ago

Umm, the newspaper industry is designed to sell ads. The news (which is usually more accurately described as opinion) exists only to get your eyeballs in front of the ads.

Next you'll be telling me that Google is in the search business. Advertisers are Google's customers. You are Google's product.

jerf3• 18 years ago

"Still, I'd rather prop up an industry that's designed to inform, educate and expose corruption in the world, than prop up industries that do little but feed our unsustainable, consumptive habits."

Expanding on gaius' point, if they actually did those things more frequently, maybe they wouldn't need propping up. Instead they are actually "designed" to do the latter.

"Given that at least 50% of the compelling things I read on this site originated in the New York Times,"

I call foul. As I write this, there's one thing on the front page from there, and only 4 in the top 100. If that ratio is correct, you should stop reading HN and just cut straight to the NYT.

jobeirne• 18 years ago

The joke's on French taxpayers!

icey• 18 years ago

How funny, I came in here to ask about French taxes. Is there anyone here who can tell us what the French generally pay annually in taxes? I'm paying almost 40% of my annual income in taxes in the US, and in exchange I don't get health care, I don't get paternity leave paid for by the government, and I sure as hell didn't get a newspaper subscription when I turned any age.

codegenerator• 18 years ago

There's many different taxes as you can imagine, but I'd say a little bit more than 50%. With that you get plenty of benefits (school, health care, unemployment, you name it)... but we also have a huge government deficit. At some point, we'll have to change stuff. And that will be painful ! (Meaning that do should really not plan your vacations in France at that time)

Xixi• 18 years ago

It's not that easy to calculate (and most French people probably don't even know), because it's quite obfuscated...

For healthcare, retirement, various helps for unemployed people and other social benefits, companies are paying roughly the equivalent of your net income directly to the state. The so called "charges".

Then according to your revenues you will pay between 0 and 50% of your net income in tax (it's maxed out to 50%). For your average software engineer with a master degree, probably around 30%.

So that's a total of 65%. Hardly ever less than 50%, and hardly ever more than 75%.

Now the real obfuscation comes from the so-called "charges". They are payed by companies so some people consider them part of company tax. I don't, because "charges" are tied to an employee... fire him/her and you won't have to pay them.

The double obfuscation on "charges" is that only a part of them is showed on the payroll... so most people tend to see them as lower than they actually are.

And then the VTA is 19.6%... So yes, French people pay an incredible amount of tax. And wages are not even high to begin with (much lower than in the United States, at least NYC where I used to be working).

Then again, nearly free education and nearly free healthcare is nice too... the "Grande Ecole" I went to, top tier, was 800 euros a year. Books and all materials included in the price. Definitely affordable.

corentin8• 18 years ago

As a former Frenchman, let me tell you it's a hell of a lot.

You can read the Forbes Tax Misery Index (http://www.forbes.com/global/2008/0407/060_2.html) or the Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom (http://www.heritage.org/index/Country/France) to learn more.

Despite those billions, most public services have been running huge deficits for decades. The trains are fast and the electricity is mostly nuclear, though. And you'll have the pleasure to live in a country where everyone has equal health care. And it's really, really... well, equal.

pclark2• 18 years ago

worthy of simplyhappynews.com - what an inspiring and ingenious idea.

pclark2• 18 years ago

sorry, I'm not sure why I thought I'd write that comment. /headslap :)

friism• 18 years ago

We have have a similar thing in Denmark, it's called "stamp-support" (due do the cost of distributing). The logic goes that print media still serves as feeder for stories that eventually gets published online and therefore newspapers should get special support.

I remain unconvinced.

France's birthday gift to 18y-olds: A subscription to the newspaper of their choice

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