Sitting in Paris bracing for the next French political crisis, I found a strangely fascinating table from the IMF. It gives government spending as a percentage of GDP for dozens of countries. Clustered at the top are several isolated microstates: Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Dominica and Micronesia. Counting only countries with populations over 150,000, the biggest spender was Ukraine, at 74 per cent of GDP. Fair enough — it’s fighting an invasion. But next in the table, at a stonking 57 per cent, is a country at peace (except with itself): France.
在巴黎静等法国陷入下一场政治危机之际，我发现了国际货币基金组织(IMF)编制的一个表格，它以某种奇特的方式引人入胜。该表列出了数十个国家的政府支出与国内生产总值(GDP)之比。排名靠前的几个国家都是孤立的微型国家：基里巴斯、马绍尔群岛、多米尼加和密克罗尼西亚。如果只统计人口超过15万的国家，支出最多的国家是乌克兰，政府支出相当于GDP的74%。这情有可原——该国正在抵抗一场入侵。但紧随其后的是一个处于和平状态（暂且不算国内的党派纷争）的国家，政府支出高达GDP的57%，那就是法国。