Why the Wealthy are leaving France (Hint: taxes sometimes exceed 100%)

Investors Business Daily ^ | July 18, 2006 | Editorial

[theBuckwheat]

Last Tango In Paris

Posted 7/18/2006

Eurosclerosis: For those seeking an elegant and romantic milieu, France has long been a favorite destination. Recently, however, it's become more of a departure point for a certain class of Frenchmen: millionaires.

According to French government data, at least one millionaire on the average leaves France every day. It's not that they're finding other places more charming than their native terroir. No, it's that France punishes its wealthiest with burdensome tax rates that sometimes reach as high as 72%.

Many of those leaving aren't just the nouveau riche. Even some old-line families who have guided French business and industry for decades are also saying au revoir.

In addition to high income, capital gains, inheritance and social security taxes, the wealthy French are hit with a "solidarity tax." Like the U.S.' alternative minimum tax, the solidarity tax is meant to make sure the wealthy pay their fair share for France's out-of-control welfare state. In some cases that levy can actually exceed a person's income, making it one of the great incentive killers of all time.

Of course, the Socialists responsible for these punitive levies say that the wealthy who leave are avoiding their responsibilities.

[theBuckwheat]

Let this be a lesson for us.

[Lancey Howard]

Here is the Washington Post's take on humans with pride fleeing socialist France:

Old Money, New Money Flee France and Its Wealth Tax

[Red6]

Socialism works! No one can find an example where it did so for any length of time, but nonetheless the socialist knows it works.

[gridlock]

Surely the gap between the rich and the poor declines in France with every passing year. Hooray!

[Mark]

NOW we really want to control our borders!

[mountn man]

Of course, the Socialists responsible for these punitive levies say that the wealthy who leave are avoiding their responsibilities.

And what exactly are those resposibilities? I live in the Chicago area. I have never met Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan has oodles more money than me. Does that mean he owes me something?

[Lancey Howard]

In fact, the primary objective of the Democrat Party here in America is to turn our country into a French-style, socialist welfare state. Reports like the one above are completely ignored by those scumbags because for then, the Democrat politicians, it's all about selfish lust for political office and the power and perks that come with it - - and America be damned.

[CometBaby]

Soon France will achieve it's goal of a one class society .. all of them poor. Then who will pay the taxes?

[impatient]

Socialists can't argue that the Laffer Curve exists, only which side of the peak an economy currently resides.

I don't see how any nation can be this stupid when the evidence is this plain that the French economy is on the downward-sloping side of the curve.

Reduce taxes, increase revenue.

Duh.

[msnimje]

Please don't leave!! Who will pay for the White Flags and Cheese??

[ansel12]

"Surely the gap between the rich and the poor declines in France with every passing year. Hooray!"



Good one.

[Lancey Howard]

Unless these trends are reversed soon through labor law reform — which was tried and failed this spring — and deep tax cuts, France's economy will continue its steady decline.

There cannot be reform because France has essentially achieved the socialist goal of unionizing most of the country. The unions said "NO" last spring and they will say "NO" until France implodes (economically). In this kind of Democrat-style socialist welfare state, there is simply no sense of reality.

[Brad from Tennessee]

" .. all of them poor." (Muslim immigrants would won't bother to learn French.)

[Hound of the Baskervilles]

"Soon France will achieve it's goal of a one class society .. all of them poor. Then who will pay the taxes"

Then they will have achieved utopia! Every one will be equally poor! Viola! A socialist heaven on earth.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Let this be a lesson for us.

Are you kidding? We have watched communism murder 100,000,000 people in the past century and the morons her STILL want a communist government. The socialist here just think that their utopia could exist if the right people were in charge. Namely them.

[mo]

Long been my opinion that if a country gets on the wrong side of the tax curve, the first thing citizens do to preserve a basic lifestyle is to stop having children.

[Hound of the Baskervilles]

Next they will levy an exit tax. You will be taxed for leaving France. Or they will make a law that wherever you go, you must pay taxes to France. They will find a way to keep people from freely leaving France. Just like the socialist government of East Berlin did not let people leave.

[silverleaf]

But Hollywood movie stars are moving to France with their millions...right? Johnny Depp? Brangelina? They love France, such a family-oriented society, and surely, our Hollywood expats and expat-wannabes are willing to pay their taxes at the French rate to support the ambience of the superior French lifestyle ... right?

[GovernmentShrinker]

Not exactly. The first thing PRODUCTIVE citizens do to preserve a basic lifestyle is to stop having children. The leeches keep reproducing like rabbits.