In these Paris street pictures from 1962, one thing stands out. ALL the cars and trucks are French. No exceptions. I don’t see any Fiats or VWs or American cars. Most are Renaults, with a mix of Peugeot and Citroen and Simca. Other Euro countries were more cosmopolitan at the time, even Germany and Italy with their own strong auto industries. US showed a noticeable proportion of VWs and Fiats and Renaults in ’62.
France made the most of its WW2 victory because the French government wasn’t afraid to PROTECT ITS PEOPLE FROM FOREIGN INVASION. France had learned a GIANT lesson from the Terror of 1789. After that horrible experience France fiercely defended the culture and language and skills and jobs of its OWN people, which is exactly what a nation should be doing.
We won the military war and lost the economic war. After 1950 we handed our electronics industry to Japan, and then HELPED Germany and Japan to invade our auto industry.
Our government was originally designed to protect us from invasions both military and economic. The feds had control of ports and customs, and the government was supposed to get most of its income from tariffs and luxury taxes. Imports were a luxury until the Share Value takeover in 1971. Wines and fashions and art were imported, and the word had a luxurious flavor. The system was meant to turn the voracious appetites of aristocrats into a benefit for everyone, following Natural Law. FDR tried to restore Natural Law, then Deepstate destroyed it again in 1946.
Since 1971 our government has INVITED invasions of all sorts, military and economic and migrants, because each of those invasions enriches the rich and ruins the poor.
9/11 was an actual military INVASION by Saudi, and instead of fighting back we REWARDED Saudi by destroying some Arab countries that Saudi wanted destroyed.
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Incidentally, we are reaping the reward for our globalism. Stellantis, the company that swallowed up many of the brands I mentioned above, is failing. Unsurprising. The PURPOSE of consolidation is failure. Products and employees and factories must be destroyed and transmuted into pure abstract wealth for a few billionaires.
