Taxation without justification?

In what should come as a complete surprise to absolutely no one, French officials estimate that the social security system will receive more than half of all tax revenues generated in the year 2006. The cumulative French income tax rate is a whopping 44%, with few tax shelters available for the average unmarried (or at least childless) employee. It is estimated that 395 billion euro, or approximately 22.2% of each employee's salary, will go to the "Sécu" (the Sécurité sociale).

I'd like to say that this is a crazy way to spend all that tax revenue, but at the risk of sounding brainwashed, I'd much rather have my taxes funding retirement and health benefits than funding invasions of foreign countries or subsidizing gasoline prices. Any country that enforces a 35-hour workweek and offers 70% severance pay for fired employees eventually has to wake up and smell what it's shoveling, to be sure, but in the meantime we're digging the seven-week vacation packages and 5 euro prescription drugs. It's just like living in Canada, but with better clothing and more attitude.