Have the French been drinking a little too much wine over their two-hour lunch breaks? Polls show that the majority of French citizens approve the country’s recent decision to collect at 75% tax on individuals whose earnings exceed 1 million euros (1.37 million U.S. dollars) per year. The tax will be collected not from the earners themselves but from their employers.
Businesses and wealthy individuals have protested the tax, “including film star Gerard Depardieu, who left the country in protest.” French soccer teams are threatening to boycott matches and say the tax may kill French soccer.
The new tax will be in place for two years and is intended, along with some spending cuts, to bring down the nation’s deficit. One can only imagine the discussions this is sparking between The Gipper and The Iron Lady in the Next World, the two of them having become political soul mates after attending the G7 Summit in Versailles in 1982.
As Romain Gubert, Deputy Economic Editor for Le Point Magazine has put it, “The difference is that in France, the rich are expected to carry a heavier burden. There is greater acceptability of taxes in France than in other countries, because it is in the [French] DNA that the word equality is a reality.”
In the meantime, France’s Robin Hood tax makes China looks like a right-wing capitalist nation by comparison.
In 1789, the French proletariat stormed The Bastille. Afterwards they took down the French elite by sending thousands to the guillotine. It seems they’ve now found a far less messy, far more profitable way to revolt.
Generation HR 