Democrats and their allies in the Democratic Socialists of America are pushing a slate of policies they say will make life in America more affordable. An August 2026 Reuters/Ipsos poll cited by American Thinker suggests the pitch is landing: a slight majority of respondents told pollsters they trust Democrats more than Republicans on the economy.
But before Americans buy what’s being sold, it’s worth asking whether the policies would actually deliver the promised outcomes. And as Burton Abrams argues in a recent American Thinker column, there happens to be a near-perfect test case already up and running: France.
France checks almost every box
The French policy suite, as Abrams describes it, reads like a wishlist written at a Democratic National Committee retreat. A Green New Deal? Done. Essentially free public universities, through master’s degrees, with only trivial tuition? Done. Universal free health care? Done. Open borders under the European Union’s arrangements? Done. A higher national minimum wage? Done.
France also practices the kind of state capitalism that American progressives have increasingly talked up. The government holds controlling or minority stakes in a broad range of domestic industries — electricity and nuclear power, rail, urban transit, airlines, and defense contractors, among others.
On tax policy, the French version of “tax the rich” means a top income bracket of 49 percent, against 37 percent in the U.S. That still isn’t enough to satisfy the government’s appetite for spending, which is why France leans heavily on a Value Added Tax that functions as a national sales tax. Rates vary by category but reach as high as 20 percent.
Even with that combined tax load, Abrams notes, France still runs a major budget deficit.
The spending number that dwarfs Washington
For readers who believe government spends money better than you do, Abrams writes, France is paradise. The French state consumes 57 percent of the nation’s income. In the U.S., that figure stood at 34 percent as of December 2025.
That gap has consequences for the things voters say they actually care about. Take home ownership, a cornerstone of the American Dream. In France, 57.6 percent of households own their primary residence; in the U.S., 65 percent do. And when Americans do own, they own bigger: the average U.S. home measures 2,296 square feet, while the average French home comes in at 1,206 — roughly 90 percent larger on the American side.
Lower output, higher unemployment
The cost shows up in the broader economy too. Abrams attributes France’s substantially lower national output per capita to its socialist policies — “giving away free things tends to do that,” he writes. In 2025, U.S. GDP per capita reached $90,026, while France’s was $48,986.
Unemployment tells a similar story. France’s jobless rate hovers above 8 percent, compared with about 4.1 percent in the U.S.
The energy picture is particularly relevant for anyone who favors a Green New Deal and public control of the energy sector. Gasoline in France runs above $9 per gallon. Electricity rates are higher as well, and air conditioning is far less common than in America.
Poverty in the socialist paradise
Americans who imagine poverty has been eliminated in France should look at France’s own numbers, Abrams suggests. Using the country’s own definition — earning less than 60 percent of the national median income — France reports an overall poverty rate of 16.3 percent.
The picture is starker for immigrants. The poverty rate among immigrants is 32.8 percent, and for immigrants born in Africa, it reaches 39.7 percent.
Growth offers perhaps the clearest long-run comparison. This century, the U.S. annual real GDP growth rate has averaged 2.2 percent, while France’s has averaged 1.36 percent. Since 2000, real GDP has grown 76 percent in the United States and 41 percent in France.
Those differences look modest year to year, but Abrams points out that small gaps in growth rates compound into enormous differences in outcomes over a generation. A country growing a percentage point slower doesn’t just fall behind slightly — it ends up in a different economic universe.
“Non, merci”
Abrams is careful to note that any honest economist would acknowledge the choice between economic systems ultimately rests on an individual value judgment. That framing matters — it’s not a question of whether France is a pleasant place to live (the bread, after all, gets an admiring nod) but what trade-offs its model contains and which set of trade-offs Americans prefer.
Still, his verdict is not subtle. Following France down the socialist path would mean lower national income, weaker growth, higher unemployment, a harder road to home ownership, and a substantially larger share of every paycheck handed to the government to spend. For Abrams, the comparison is a no-brainer. Non, merci.
Source: www.americanthinker.com — https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/09/shall-we-be-a-socialist-paradise-like-france/