Consider it or not, France has had a type of social safety for the reason that 1600s, and its trendy system started in earnest in 1910, when the world’s life expectancy was simply 32 years previous. In the present day the typical human makes it to 75 and for the French, it’s 83, among the many highest in Europe.
Nice information for French individuals, dangerous information for his or her pensions.
As a result of persons are residing longer, the mathematics to fund pensions in France is now not mathing, and now the nation’s debt is almost 114% of its GDP. Keep in mind it was simply a few years in the past when protesters set elements of Paris on hearth as a result of President Emmanuel Macron proposed elevating the age of authorized retirement from 62 to 64. Properly, now Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has proposed eliminating two nationwide holidays, in an try to deal with the nation’s debt.
In 2023, earlier than Paris was burning, roughly 50,000 individuals in Denmark gathered outdoors of Parliament to specific their anger over ditching one of many nation’s nationwide holidays. The roots of Nice Prayer Day date all the way in which again to the 1600s. Eliminating it — with the hopes of accelerating manufacturing and tax income — introduced collectively the unions, opposing political events and church buildings in a uncommon trifecta. That explains why a variety of colleges and companies closed for the vacation in 2024 in defiance of the official change.
This week, Bayrou proposed eliminating France’s Easter Monday and Victory Day holidays, the latter marking the defeat of Nazi Germany. In a Reuters ballot, 70% of respondents didn’t like the thought, so we’ll see if Paris begins burning once more. Or perhaps residents will take a cue from the Danes and simply not work on these days, even when the federal government decides to proceed enterprise as normal.
Right here at house, President Trump has additionally floated the thought of eliminating one of many nationwide holidays. Nonetheless, as a result of he floated the thought on Juneteenth — by way of a social media put up about “too many non-working holidays” — I’m going to imagine tax income wasn’t the only real motivation for his feedback that day. , given his campaign towards company and authorities range efforts; his refusal to apologize for calling for the loss of life penalty for 5 harmless boys of coloration; and his approval of Alligator Alcatraz. Nonetheless, whereas I discover myself at odds with the president’s 2025 remarks concerning the vacation, I do agree with what he stated about Juneteenth when he was president in 2020: “It’s truly an essential occasion, an essential time.”
Certainly.
Whereas the establishment of slavery enabled this nation to rapidly turn into a worldwide energy, research present the most important financial features within the historical past of the nation got here from slavery’s ending — in any other case often called Juneteenth. Two economists have discovered that the financial payoff from releasing enslaved individuals was “larger than the introduction of railroads, by some estimates, and value 7 to 60 years of technological innovation within the latter half of the nineteenth century,” in keeping with the College of Chicago. Why? As a result of the ultimate calculations revealed the price to enslave individuals for hundreds of years was far higher than the financial good thing about their freedom.
In 1492, when Christopher Columbus “found America,” civilizations had been thriving on this land for millennia. The colonizers launched slavery to those shores two years earlier than the primary “Thanksgiving” in 1621. That was greater than 50 years earlier than King Louis XIV began France’s first pension; 60 years earlier than King Christian V accredited Nice Prayer Day; and 157 years earlier than the 13 colonies declared independence from Britain on July 4, 1776.
Of all of the nationwide holidays across the Western world, it could seem Juneteenth is among the many most important traditionally. But it gained federal recognition simply 4 years in the past, and it stays susceptible. The transatlantic slave commerce reworked the worldwide financial system, however the numbers present it was Juneteenth that lifted America to the highest. Which tells you the president’s trace at its elimination has little to do with our greatness and every part to do with the worldview of an elected official who was endorsed by the newspaper of the Ku Klux Klan.
If it does get to the purpose the place we — like France and Denmark — find yourself significantly contemplating reducing a vacation, my vote is for Thanksgiving. The retail trade treats it like a velocity bump between Halloween and Christmas, and when historical past retells its origins, it’s not a vacation price protesting to maintain.
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Concepts expressed within the piece
- LZ Granderson advocates for eliminating nationwide holidays however argues this could begin with traditionally problematic ones, highlighting Thanksgiving’s origins in colonialism and slavery as a main candidate for removing.
- The writer criticizes President Trump’s suggestion to cut back holidays—made on Juneteenth—as racially motivated, given Trump’s previous controversies involving race and his endorsement by a KKK-linked newspaper.
- Granderson defends Juneteenth as economically transformative, citing analysis that ending slavery spurred unprecedented U.S. development, and condemns any effort to revoke this vacation.
- He helps vacation discount for fiscal causes, citing France and Denmark as fashions, however emphasizes that the selection should prioritize justice over comfort.
Completely different views on the subject
- French Prime Minister François Bayrou proposed reducing Easter Monday and WWII Victory Day to spice up financial output and tax income, framing it as important to decreasing France’s debt (114% of GDP) and funding protection wants[1][2][4].
- The plan confronted speedy backlash: 70% of French residents opposed it in polls, unions condemned it, and the far-right Nationwide Rally—Parliament’s largest celebration—rejected it[2].
- Historic precedent warns towards such strikes; France’s 2003 try to scrap Pentecost Monday induced widespread confusion, protests, and enduring public resentment[3].
- Denmark’s elimination of Nice Prayer Day in 2023 triggered mass defiance, with colleges and companies closing anyway—illustrating deep cultural attachment to holidays.
- Not like Granderson’s give attention to racial justice, macroeconomic arguments dominate abroad: Bayrou asserted reducing “holy cheese” vacation clusters would streamline productiveness with out concentrating on particular historic narratives[1][2][4].
