Socialism is causing the French to flee France

Forget Paris: Stymied by Socialist Policies, the French Start to Quit France

By Vivienne Walt / Paris
TIME MAGAZINE
May 21, 2013

Ernest Hemingway once described Paris in spring as a time when “there were no problems except where to be happiest.” Clearly Hemingway did not foresee the springtime of 2013. For many of Paris’ residents right now — in fact, for many French in general — the answer to the question of where to be happiest is: pretty much anywhere but France. For months now, there has been a steady rumbling of people packing up and moving out. There are few reliable figures of the numbers of people leaving, in part because many are moving within the E.U., where there are no immigration requirements for Europeans. Yet for those of us living in France, the exodus has been notable. Around New Year, a moving truck rolled up to our building and loaded the worldly possessions of the couple and four children living below us as they headed off to Singapore where better prospects awaited the father of the family.

Charles-Marie Jottras, president of Paris’s biggest luxury-real-estate company Daniel Feau, says the departure of wealthy clients is reminiscent of the early 1980s, when the previous Socialist President François Mitterrand was in power. The difference this time, he says, is that “it used to be just rich people who left, not business people.” He believes Hollande’s government now realizes that its policies might be driving out the very people he needs to help grow France’s economy. It is a feeling, says Pierre Reboul, founder of Electronic Business Group, a Paris-based networking company, that “there is just no support for people who are enterprising.” L’Express and Le Figaro featured the same cover headline: “Why they are leaving France.” L’Express added the subtitle: “It’s not just the rich!” as though the editors were amazed that regular folk would opt to try their luck elsewhere and forgo cherished French benefits like minimum five weeks’ annual paid leave, decent public health care and free schooling. The magazines cite the 300,000 French estimated to be living in London and the 200,000 French residents in Belgium — a 25% rise since 2010, according to Le Figaro.

If there’s anyone who still needs convincing that France is in a dyspeptic funk, a flurry of statistics last week showed just how serious the situation is. The statistics suggested that the problem might not be due only to Europe’s economic crisis, as Hollande argued during his press conference on May 16.

On May 14, Pew Research published a poll saying that “no European country is becoming more dispirited and disillusioned faster than France,” with 91% of those surveyed by the organization saying that the economy was doing badly and 67% ranking Hollande as doing “a lousy job.” The next day, May 15, France’s official statistics agency INSEE announced that the country had entered its third recession in four years, with unemployment rising more than 11% since Hollande came to power.

http://world.time.com/2013/05/21/fo...he-french-start-to-quit-france/#ixzz2U1klkHoy

This is how you destroy a country.

 

Beheading that class didn't destroy France.

 

Wonder how long people will stick around when their taxes are over 100%, LOL

French Tax Soars Over 100%

Over 8,000 French households paid taxes topping 100% of their incomes, according to French Finance Ministry data. Taxes on Some Wealthy French Top 100% of Income. You may scratch your head in disbelief. How is that possible?

Stateside, you might guess it was the alternative minimum tax. In France, it was a one-time 2011 levy on incomes for households with assets over 1.3 million euros ($1.67 million). 8,000 families paying 100% may seem a small number, but nearly 12,000 households paid more than 75%. The percentages sure do grate.


There was bitter controversy when President Francois Hollande‘s Socialist government imposed the tax surcharge shortly after taking office. It lead to some well-publicized departures, including actor Gerard Depardieu. He became a Russian citizen, including dinner with Vladimir Putin.

Unimpressed, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault labeled Depardieu “pathetic” and “unpatriotic.” The Constitutional Council eventually ruled the 75% rate unfair but gave a kind of template for the future. The government redrafted a proposed bill to levy a temporary 75% tax on earnings over 1 million euros. Taxes on the wealthy had been one of Hollande’s campaign pledges.

And Socialist President François Hollande did as he promised and slapped a 75% tax rate on millionaires. Despite France’s Constitutional Council, the tax is clearly coming back. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the government would reintroduce a revised version. See French Council Strikes Down 75% Tax Rate. Even so, the 75% tax will only collect a few hundred million dollars. See French Court Rejects 75% Tax Rate.

Yet it’s clear France isn’t off the tax increase bandwagon. For example, the controversial taxing of capital gains at the same rates as income was upheld by the Constitutional Council. That provision will impact far more in the country than the millionaire’s tax. Meanwhile, the U.S. worldwide income tax is a bigger issue than mere rates. See Expats Lobby For Tax on Residence, Not Worldwide Income.

It’s what caused Facebook ’s Eduardo Saverin to decamp for tax-friendly Singapore. See Why Facebook’s Co-Founder Just Defriended America. Yet even decamping is not as easy as it looks given America’s tough and complex tax system. There is already a U.S. exit tax on people who give up their U.S. citizenship.

What’s more, this exit tax can even apply to handing in a Green Card. See High Cost To Go Green: Giving Up A Green Card. Sure, we live in a global society, but it turns out that tax moves are not always easy.

You can reach me at Wood@WoodLLP.com. This discussion is not intended as legal advice, and cannot be relied upon for any purpose without the services of a qualified professional.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2013/05/21/french-tax-soars-over-100/

 

make the state or country ungovernable and unliveable.
Drive out the productive and bring in the dependent class.

the soviet dream re engineered without a violent revolution.
we are seeing played out in California France and now the US.

 

These are amazing times. The free world has gone bonkers over getting some free stuff from government.

Freedom could be snuffed out once again.