French invent a new entitlement
When you read the headline “French Workers Strike” you think: this is news? They should run a story when French strikers work.
The government’s desire to raise the retirement age to 62 caused the last spasm of outrage, but I have an idea what will cause mass protests in 2013:
France's strategy to combat illegal music downloads by contributing to the amount young people pay for them won European Union approval and praise for promoting cultural diversity.
Under the scheme, French residents who purchase a card to download music from subscription-based website platforms, will only pay half the cost of a 50-euro credit included in the card, with the French government paying the rest.
Since this discriminates against people who can’t pay anything, it will be raised to 100% next year, and then it will be raised to 120% in 2012 to encourage people to buy music they don’t want in order to support unpopular artists. When the government tries to cut it back to 90% in 2013, it will be described as “cultural genocide,” and strikes will result. Some old Commie who’s been at everyone of these events since 1968 will get a phone call: need you to show up at the Opera House at noon, dressed as an iPod with the word perfidie written on the front. Can do you it? Merci.
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Aug '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
Steyn's crazy, there's no way the islamofacists will take over those tough and independent Europeans!
Oct '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
http://www.amazon.com/Just-Sings-Jerry-Lewis/dp/B000002Z9F/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_1
They deserve what they'll get.
Jul '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
Mais, bien sur.
...Then they came for the French illegal music downloaders,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't French, or an illegal music downloader.
Then they came for Ricochet commenters
and then we all had something to say.
C'est horrible!
Jul '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
Hey! What about pornography downloads?
People are pirating porn all over the web. Porno actors who should be dining on filet mignon are subsisting on Hamburger Helper.
Man, when the State won't step in to subsidize every form of artistic expression, there is simply no justice....
Sep '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
The Mullahs will not allow music downloads at all unless its muezzin chants which by then will be all the rage even in the free world- what's left of it.
May '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
Is it possible that this is necessary to get certain artists downloaded? I can list a lot of "musicians" for which they would have to pay me to listen.
Sep '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
Don't we already guarantee access to basic television programming as the birthright of every American?
Jul '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
Why shouldn't the current Mrs Sarkozy, a recording artiste herself, be subsidized by the taxpayers? Quite thoughtful of her husband, actually.
Edited on Oct 14, 2010 at 1:03pmBesides, only downloads from subscription-based, government approved music services will enjoy the subsidies. iTunes, Amazon will not. Quelle surprise!
Aug '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
A good friend of mine who is a French citizen has set up an address here in America where his bills and other mail are arriving. It's his "lifeboat" - he calls it - which he can jump into when the bottom falls out. We've had many discussions recently about moral hazard.
Jul '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
Were it to be needed, could France even summon the fortitude to from the French Resistance in these modern times?
Maybe, but only for 30 hours a week.
Aug '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
John Davey: Were it to be needed, could France even summon the fortitude to from the French Resistance in these modern times?
Maybe, but only for 30 hours a week. · Oct 14 at 1:11pm
I think you'll find the history of the French Resistance to be partially fictional.
So the fortitude you recall is only partially true, perhaps the tude part.
Where is the "Danny the Listened" ? Wasn't he a bigshot in the sixties ? This sounds (!) like him .
Edited on Oct 14, 2010 at 1:45pmAug '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
You missed the next step: inspired by Bloomberg's food stamp ideas, users of the subsidized card will be forced to buy only certain music, with strict bans on purchases of already popular bands.
And none of that ancient "classical" stuff by dead white European males. Wouldn't be fair to all the fine artists over at the "world beats" section!
Aug '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
If I promise not to beat people up and steal their money, will the French government pay half my living expenses?
What a stupid idea...
Jul '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
In protest, we will only burn 50% of the cars on the block.
Aug '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
Ah, the mass-protests will begin earlier than that, as this plan only subsidizes music for 12-to-25-year-olds. This outrageously discriminates against those 26 and up.
I'd say that old Commie needs to get his perfidious iPod costume ready soon!
May '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
If the government hadn't interceded (read "butted in") TV today would still be analog standard definition. They forced the change, not the consumer. So they felt it was necessary not to leave the elderly and the poor without TV.
Oct '10
Re: French invent a new entitlement
Meanwhile, Stateside, the intellectual elites will jump on the precedent set by the Health Care mandate and leverage certain Justices' fondness of international law and require everyone to buy into '70s disco hits or face jail time (outfitted with a white polyester suit) with a cellmate having bad teeth and a chest rug.
Happily, it will run afoul of the screaming 45 rpm baud rate we will be afforded through Net Neutrality, and so, the entitlement will meet a tragic (?) end by dying out due to lack of taste before prospective partakers have loaded enough of Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell" to hear the first "Peeeeeewwwww."