“The rules over there are stifling. So much for the “big business is conservative” meme.”
For several years I worked for the American subsidiary of France’s Schlumberger . I believe that at the time Schlumberger was the largest corporation in the world. Every business principle you know was stood on its ear in France. For example, Schlumberger’s defense arm would tell the French government what the government was going to buy and then the government would negotiate how much. I have no idea how that worked. I can tell you that France was building Ford’s flathead V8 for most of its military vehicles into the mid-seventies. This wasn’t because the French military didn’t want a more powerful modern design. I think they only switched because the design was ludicrously under-powered and simply couldn’t perform to modern standards.
The point is that if you’re properly set with the French government I don’t think things are too bad for business. However, Hollande appears to have reset the playing field and closed the loopholes that allowed some businesses to skate passed the rules, regulations, and taxes.
Another point, some people are as in love with the idea of “France.” They practically swoon when they say the word. They’re in love with an idea that doesn’t exist in reality.
Yes, I’m sure there’s a lot of crony capitalism occuring, whcih is why we have the spectacle of businessmen voting for Ozero and other statists. It’s little wonder that so many rubes hate ‘capitalism’ when we have this crap going on. As usual, if your in good with the ‘rulers’ of a country, you can expect favors while the little guys get quashed.