France Takes A Left Turn
They’ve elected Hollande but they ain’t going dutch
France will be waking up today to its first Socialist President for 17 years – and bracing for radical change. There are all kinds of reasons why one might fear a François Hollande presidency, especially if you are a prosperous French person.
The 57-year-old Socialist has openly admitted that he “does not like the rich” and declared that “my real enemy is the world of finance”. This means taxing the wealthy by up to 75 per cent, curtailing the activities of Paris as a centre for financial dealing, and ploughing millions into creating more civil service jobs.
Add an explicit threat to renegotiate the euro pact to replace austerity with “growth-creating” spending, and you have one of the most vehemently left-wing programmes in recent history.
Yeah, I’m sure that a plan based on “more civil service jobs” is just what is needed to revive their economy.
I love how government careerists and their enablers in the media instantly proclaim how “austerity has failed” when tightened belts begin to bite yet somehow after decades of governmental efforts and untold trillions of dollars in spending they never seem to question the efficacy or veracity of their Big Government Is The Answer programs.
Media, Nanny State, People, Politics | Mr. Bingley | 
May 7, 2012 7:16 am
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I would like to hope that the market has been pricing in Hollande risk for some time. Polls have been indicating that he would be elected for the last three months. It’s not like it is a surprise. Moreover, I would not be surprised if he has to scale back his rhetoric now that he actually has to govern. Nonetheless, it will be an interesting day on the markets.
Stupid French.
Technically, the top tax rate on high earners is more than gross income. How socialists can make it worse will be a real challenge.
Well, the French are about to find out one of the most consistent truths of nature. Light is the only thing that moves faster than wealth looking for a safe haven. I predict a large influx of wealth will benefit Montreal, Quebec in the near future.
Gary, socialists can always, no matter how bad the situation, make it worse. It’s a feature, not a bug.
“Who’s up for a Sixth Republic?”
Those exhilerating, heady moments of “freedom” when you just spend without thought to tomorrow must feel like flying; socialists never think that the fuel is gonna run out. That’s why they consider it a failure when there’s a rough landing where everyone walks away, and why they refuse to prepare for one. They would rather pretend that they’re soaring ever-upward, rather than heading at Mach-three towards the mountain of debt.
‘Fly, you are describing my (thankfully) ex-wife.
Mr B, might I suggest revising the title of this post? I feel it should be “France Takes Another Left Turn”.
Au Revoir Les Enfants…
Mais non, Mark. C’est pour les enfants.
Jacking up taxes and adding more government workers isn’t radical change, it’s just par for the course. Radical change would be to junk the French economy, tax system (especially the tax system), government regulations, and administration and replace it all with something of which Frederic Bastiat would have approved. But that would be le capitalisme des Anglo-Saxons, and we can’t have that.
I wonder how long it will take Johnny Depp and the rest of the Hollywood snobbery to pull up stakes and leave France now that they are getting what they’ve been wishing on the US for years?