Letter From France: Rich exiles hear a plea to come home

International Hearald Tribune ^ | July 31, 2007 | Celestine Bohlen

[wgflyer]

PARIS: Nicolas Sarkozy is rolling out the welcome mat for thousands of rich French people who fled one of Europe's most onerous tax regimes. Few may heed his call.

In his first economic act as president, Sarkozy is pushing a tax law to lure back wealthy exiles such as the rock star Johnny Hallyday and members of the Mulliez clan, who control the French retailer Groupe Auchan. The measure will allow more exemptions on the "wealth" tax, the bête noire of the rich, and cap the total individual tax rate at 50 percent of income.....

[wgflyer]

Who says socialism ain't pricey....

Thanks to http://no-pasaran.blogspot.com/ for this link.

[squidly]

A 50% cap on income tax. Yeah! I am so there.

[Popocatapetl]

This is even deeper than socialism, it is a reflection of the Napoleonic Law and Roman Law origins of France, which permeates the French way of doing business.

For instance, their legal system is founded on concepts abhorrent to us, whose legal system is based in Common Law. For instance, as we believe that "that which is not expressly illegal is legal", the French believe the opposite: "that which has not been approved by the government is illegal."

This alone makes it terribly hard to start an innovative new business. But principles like that are common in France, and stifle growth, creativity, entrepreneurship, and the free thinking needed for a country to prosper.

And on top of *that* onerous system, add socialism. The only thing keeping France afloat is that the majority of EU monies unfairly goes to French farm subsidies. Were it not for this massive injection of capital, France's economy would already be the size of Portugal's.

So what can Sarkozy do? His best bet would be to try a healthy dose of Reaganomics. And during the great reorganization, push through reforms in the bureaucracy to strip them of much of their power to preemptively regulate French business. Remove the restrictions on hiring and firing, slash welfare as much as possible, and break up all of the ghettos with redevelopment projects.

That is, gentrify right through the middle of the projects, forcing integration and employment with hundreds of small businesses in the gentrified areas. By dividing the ghettos, and providing work in them, you eventually solve much of your integration and employment problems.

[Tzimisce]

...you don’t think they’d need rich French people with all the Hollywood types taking up residence there...

[wgflyer]

“...push through reforms in the bureaucracy to strip them of much of their power to preemptively regulate French business. Remove the restrictions on hiring and firing, slash welfare as much as possible, and break up all of the ghettos with redevelopment projects.”

Government redevelopment projects? I don’t think the French need redevelopment projects unless they are private sector driven. France has a great deal of pent up entreprenaurism ready to take advantage of any of the (very common sense) items on your above list of reforms. Killing government interference with such ready entrepreneurs is indeed the key. I doubt that France, as a nation, is quite ready to follow Sarkozy in that direction without a lot of violence first. Let us hope that I’m wrong, there, because France, liberated, free and growing in strength of national character and renewed pride in itself (instead of the false pride they spout these days) would be a great friend, for a change.

[wgflyer]

I don’t think the French tax you on wealth not bound within french borders. Hollywood types likely keep the bulk of their funds elsewhere. That makes it even better for them (the actors), eh?

[Savage Beast]

If the French think the wealth tax is causing a mass exodus, what do they think the sharia’s going to do?

[Popocatapetl]

Government redevelopment along the lines of eminent domain for gentrification. Right now there are huge ghettos which are almost entirely low cost housing projects.

What I am talking about is busting up these projects by segmenting them, removing strips of apartment to break up unnaturally large neighborhoods. Then selling the one block wide, five-or-so blocks long vacant lots to business developers. In turn, these developers create a small business buffer zone, turning a gigantic residential zone into a mixed use zone. Creating lots of local jobs, and splitting up ethnic enclaves.

While the majority of the work and investment is private, the French government would need to take the initiative to seize and destroy the selected projects to start the ball rolling.

[wgflyer]

I see. Might work. Not sure how the muslim/government interaction might go. Where do they put the displaced individuals? In non ethnic communities? How would displaced, likely radical young muslims interact with the communities they were injected into? Communities already seething with angry union workers, their cocoon of socialist protectionism shattered. I doubt that the muzzies would be resettled in upper class areas.

At any rate, though, pardon my natural reluctance to grant government the right to confiscate property for economic projects. That is too fertile ground for abuse and corruption.

[Popocatapetl]

I wouldn’t worry about more corruption in France. They have pretty much peaked in that regard. However, the government created the problem, which amounts to enclaves of hostile poor people who reject government or police authority; there is no way to bust that up that isn’t going to create problems.

So some degree of tact has to be used do pull it off. Firstly, to build better accommodations elsewhere for the soon to be displaced. Then give them a choice to move there or to adjacent buildings, if they want to stay in their ‘hood. The new apartments should be ethnically and religiously homogeneous as possible.

And once you have an emptied apartment block, you tear it down quickly before it can be squatted. Then while the redevelopment is being planned, plant grass and flowers in the vacant lot, which will be appreciated by those in the adjacent buildings for a while.

Construction has to be streamlined and quick, with more resources than normal. Emphasis should be on production businesses that employ a lot of people, with some retail. Police substations are also included to insert authority back into the neighborhood.

Ideally, you try to get the enclaves interested in having such gentrification, not realizing that is the end of their power and unity.

This is just one way of doing things, but there are others that have similar effect.

[wgflyer]

I agree with you that government created the problem in the first place. Unfortunately, I would find it hard to believe that government can solve the problem in any way other than by stepping aside and letting people provide for themselves and prosper without confiscation of the new wealth. But Europeans aren’t generally so inclined. More and more, neither are Americans. It will be interesting to watch.