Anticlimactic news flash! Recently, the results of the annual BVA-Gallup International Survey on economic outlook were released, revealing that the French are the most pessimistic people in the world. Undoubtedly this caused Americans and Brits everywhere to cry “told you so! That’s why they’re so unfriendly!”, perpetuating longstanding stereotypes about the French and their attitudes toward all non-French people. Yes, according to Time the French have the most dismal outlook on 2011, unconvinced that the ominous economic cloud that has raised their unemployment rate from high to extortionately high is really starting to dissipate.
However, their level of economic and personal pessimism might appear disproportionate to the amount of money they are spending. Le Monde reported that purchases by credit card were up 7.2% by the end of 2010 and a record-breaking 13.6 million transactions (presumably in preparation for the Christmas holiday) were executed on December 11th – so they’re miserable but jolly spenders? I asked my husband what he thought of this behavioral revelation and he explained, quite matter-of-factly,
“oh yeah, it’s widely known that we’re cynical and distrusting. But everyone puts on a façade for the holidays to make themselves and others around them feel better, even if only temporarily. Then once the holidays are over, everyone goes back to self-important complaining.”
Are they escapists or just exercising their right to boost the economy via retail therapy?
Perhaps the greater question is what do they have to be so miserable about? So perpetually down-in-the-dumps, in fact, that they perceive the future with greater gloom than war-torn Afghans and Iraqis. Economist and philosopher Gurcharan Das, who apparently knows a thing or two about real misery living in Delhi, painted a harsh yet befitting picture of the French:
“Sometimes I think of France as a fat cat, comfortably curled up by the fire… one must know hunger to really savor happiness”….
imagery that applies as much to the starving and poor as to the sick. This isn’t to say that other Europeans or even Americans do not occasionally fit this caricature but the French seem to have a mastered the art of ‘woe-is-me’.
