> the roughly $25K per year they get for doing nothing
If you think that you can get that amount of money from doing nothing in France, you must have spent that year on crack. Do you have any idea how the french welfare state works? The minimum income (if you're eligible) is currently about €6000 per year. And that's not even enough to pay rent in most french cities (I'm paying €700/m for a 35 m², one bedroom, apartment in one of the poorest suburbs of Paris).
If you think that you can get that amount of money from doing nothing in France, you must have spent that year on crack. Do you have any idea how the french welfare state works? The minimum income (if you're eligible) is currently about €6000 per year. And that's not even enough to pay rent in most french cities (I'm paying €700/m for a 35 m², one bedroom, apartment in one of the poorest suburbs of Paris).