Posted on 06/16/2013 7:00:29 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Remember the saga of Gerard Depardieu, the wealthy and much-maligned French actor who had the nerve to seek residence (and, presumably, a lower tax burden) elsewhere? French Socialist politicians flipped their lids when the well-known actor headed for the exits, and even though he hasn’t completely renounced his French citizenship, the actor was pretty clear in a recent interview that nobody has succeeded in guilt-tripping him into backing down. Via The Independent:
In his first lengthy press interview since he announced six months ago that he was “sending back” his French passport, Mr Depardieu said he now saw himself as a “citizen of the world”. …
Last December the actor engaged in a public slanging match with the Socialist government in France after announcing that he intended to live in Belgium to avoid high French taxes. In his interview yesterday with the Journal du Dimanche, he denied that he was a “tax exile”. He said that he still paid 30 per cent of his income in French taxes – but not the 87 per cent that he claimed he would have to pay if he lived full-time in his native country. …
France, he said, was “almost a Bolshevik country”, in view of the “hidden scandals” such as that of the former Budget minister Jerome Cahuzac, who avoided taxes by having an illegal bank account abroad.
Well, I don’t know about this guy specifically — getting all buddy-buddy with Vladimir Putin does feel pretty sketchy — but the point is, more central-planning does tend to lead to more corruption and plutocracy, and that the Socialist French government is delusional if they think that wealthy individuals and businesses are going to wait around patiently for the government to serve them with still more decrees about how it’s their duty to pay a still larger majority of their income to sputtering, stalled-out mess that is the inefficient and extravagant bureaucracy. Neither economic pragmatism nor some misbegotten sense of patriotism are going to stop people from making choices in their own rational self-interest, no matter how much outrageous outrage Socialist politicians care to muster.
And speaking of merely that latest of Socialist French President Francois Hollande’s litany of political problems, the WSJ has the scoop:
The French government kicked off a fresh round of talks on Friday to overhaul the country’s state-backed pension fund, the fourth attempt in a decade to fix a generous but underfinanced system.
The effort will test the ability of the Socialist President François Hollande to push through painful measures. Although his predecessor, the conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, increased the standard pension age to 62 from 60 in 2010, the government says it is imperative to consider new changes.
Without revision, the retirement of waves of baby boomers, combined with the increase in life expectancy, will leave the pension fund with a €20 billion ($27 billion) deficit in 2020—about 1% of the country’s gross domestic product.
It works fine until they run out of other people’s money!
He’s right.
It is a fact that Russia has been through a tax reform toward the flat tax American conservatives have been literally screaming for, and is probably one of the least socialist countries in the world right now.
Regardless if you like Putin or not.
So, how’s their economy doing? Are they building good stuff?
I have always enjoyed Depardieu’s movies. Even now, when he is no longer young and cute.
Every country, large or small, has a group of people who think they know more than anybody else. This very small coterie of “thinkers” and “pragmatists” believe they know more than the rest of their fellow citizens (who may number in the hundreds of millions) and pledge their lives in the pursuit of power so that they might force their fellow citizens to live the way these “thinkers and pragmatists” think they should live. The names of this small group of these deluded people are liberals, leftists, and progressives (LLPs). The presidents they elect are the greatest geniuses in human history. Or so they are presented by the LLPs. They know more than anybody else...just ask them.
What’s a ‘’slanging match’’?
LLPs. Proving the truth of the old adage that some people have more brains than common sense.
>>>>So, how’s their economy doing? Are they building good stuff?<<<<
Not that bad. They are the major grain exporters along with the Ukraine right now. Both nations were simply starving importing wheat from US since 1960s into earlier 1990s under communist regimes.
And Russia is still an industrialized nation and not that much of petrocracy.
If you are to check their economy index, it’s extraction industries makes no more than 10% of total economy and manufacturing has higher share comparing to US.
There are really little Russian products on US market but it doesn’t mean there aren’t elsewhere. For example Chevy cars and SUVs sold in Central Asia and Eastern Europe are Russian built. Russian arms sales are strong in the world. Can you at least name a US domestic HDTV maker? And Russia has a number of companies who builds consumer electronics. They are actually making pretty everything. Ford , Toyota, Nissan, VW, Mercedes-Benz and others are building there. Local Russian brands are selling a million vehicles annually. Their large heavy-duty trucks are rated best over any other maker in remote places of Asia.
Hmmmm....
So how’s the crime there, safe to visit and walk around?
Well, as for violent crime it is way much safer than any American city. Murder statistics are high but it is mostly attributed to drank disputes among ghetto spouses and siblings who are stabbing and shooting each other at home. Unless you are involved with them and their lifestyles you are pretty safe. Btw, his kind of violence is reducing as well along with Russian alcohol consumption. Russians aren’t even the most drinking nation in Europe now.
It is pretty common to walk on foot in a downtown and the whole inner city at night there, robberies and other violence are rare if you aren’t about to pick a fight with someone. Anyway, some basic awareness makes sense. You certainly don’t have to star your gold chain and Rolex if you are alone near some ethnic youths, it makes sense to watch your drink if you got a girl from a bar to your room as well. If you are a non-white (with the exception of Asian who are counted as whites there) you can get a kick or a punch as well but it is pretty rare and improving comparing to what is was just ten years ego and now it is pretty safe for blacks and Arab people too. In short, Russian racism is falsely overinflated just like their status of petrocracy, allegedly built on oil exports.
Thus, theft is present, you have to watch your pockets in a crowded places like train stations, markets and public transit. Don’t leave valuables inside a parked vehicle.
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