If you are going to quote statistics about France, perhaps you should also look to similar stats about the U.S.  Should we start with the murder rate? the rate of incarceration? Unemployment in South L.A.?  Our defense budget?  I don't even need to look at the stats about these things because everyone knows that they are abysmal.  You are actually doing what you accuse the author of doing: quoting stats that make your argument.

To that end, here's a stat that shows 33% of people in Detroit live below the poverty line:http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/sep2005/detr-s02.shtml

Or here's one:  45.8 million without health insurance.
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/005647.html

It's from the U.S. government, so I'm not sure you can trust it.