I just read a jaw-dropping article in The Economist - appropriately titled Allons, Enfants! - discussing the exceedingly dark and irrational situation in the French Caribbean.

Not yet a year ago, my wife and I visited St. Martin for a day, and noticed a striking discrepancy between the Dutch-governed and the French-governed part.

The Dutch-governed part, you see, is similar to the rest of the Caribbean. It appears better developed than other islands we've seen. However, the roads are old and rugged, and infrastructure in general appears to be comfortably closer to Caribbean standards than those of urban Europe.

Once you enter the French part, however, you say - wow. New asphalt roads. Sidewalks. Street lights. Marked intersections. And the next thought you have, if you're like me, is who pays for this? Surely not the Caribbean residents. If most other islands can't afford this, how can the French part of St. Martin? It must be that the French are shoveling a whole lot of money into this.

And so it is. According to the Economist article, the French are assisting their Caribbean territories to the tune of EUR 13 billion per year. This comes in the form of "subsidies and tax breaks, including a 40% salary premium for civil servants". Since the combined population of these territories is less than 1 million, this makes for a whopping EUR 13,000 of subsidies, tax breaks, and salary premiums per resident. This is for an area where GDP per capita is EUR 17,000, so the French taxpayers are providing 75% of that - or in other words... paying these people to live.

So you would think, the recipients of this magnanimity would be satisfied, correct?

Nope.

Looting shops, burning cars, and protesting violently. Demanding a 200 EUR monthly salary increase. And extra rights. And maybe, perhaps, a little expropriation of white businessowners.

What Guadeloupe and Martinique should get is independence. The black majority is unsatisfied by that they don't get to make their own laws, and their standard of living is too low. The solution for this is to give them the ability to make their own laws. Then they can go ahead and nationalize the businesses of white people, of whom they are envious. Then, they can watch how their new country turns into Zimbabwe over the course of several decades; their infrastructure deteriorating, and lacking generous infusions from the French, their economies crumbling to dust.

Soon enough, they will be at the door of the IMF, asking for loans in the billions.

But this is the preferable outcome. Because then, they'll be able to pin it on themselves.