Forget Money. France is Running out of People

But beyond the upper crust, a more pervasive unease is inflicting a wider group of misérables.
It is a feeling, says Pierre Reboul, founder of Electronic Business
Group, a Paris-based networking company, that “there is just no support
for people who are enterprising.”...
In fact, the sense that the world beyond France might hold a lot more
promise for French people than home does has so intensified that in
recent months two weekly magazines, L’Express and Le Figaro
— both fiercely conservative critics of the Socialist government —
featured the same cover headline: “Why they are leaving France.” L’Express
added the subtitle: “It’s not just the rich!” as though the editors
were amazed that regular folk would opt to try their luck elsewhere and
forgo cherished French benefits like minimum five weeks’ annual paid
leave, decent public health care and free schooling. The magazines cite
the 300,000 French estimated to be living in London and the 200,000
French residents in Belgium — a 25% rise since 2010, according to Le Figaro.
Each magazine interviews young go-getters who’ve upped sticks for New
York City, Dubai, Shanghai and elsewhere for better pay, more-rapid
promotion and a chance to make their mark — things that those profiled
say are all-but impossible under a sclerotic French system. Alexandre
Perrot, 30, featured in Le Figaro, moved to New York City a
year ago and works for a business-intelligence company, is quoted as
saying that France’s system “does not value or stimulate active youth.”