> [France] has an awfully elitist education and employment system with very little opportunity to break into any of it as an outsider What are you talking abou

> [France] has an awfully elitist education and employment system with very little opportunity to break into any of it as an outsider What are you talking about? Basic education in France is free, the university is open to everybody and is not expensive at all; and if you are a good student you can even go to a "grande école", which is not only free but you receive a good monthly salary just to study there. The entrance exams are open to everybody, and they are anonymous. Please tell me how can it be any less elitist than that! Of course, there is a lot of social inertia whereby children of parents with higher education are more likely to pursue a higher education. But this is an acknowledged problem and one of the main goals of the system is precisely to solve it. Source: I am part of the French higher education system to which I entered as a total outsider. (you are right, however, that the private employment system is awfully elitist: if you didn't go to the right schools it's much harder to get a good job)