(The destructive direction we are going - "elections have consequences".) The Moochers and Looters in France Are Running Out of Victims 6/29/2013 12:01:00 AM Thinking about the fiscal mess in Europe, “I love it when statists run out of victims and start cannibalizing each other.” The late, great Margaret Thatcher famously said that “Socialist governments…always run out of other people’s money”. And that’s about to happen in France. The burden of government spending is enormous, with the public sector consuming 57 percent of economic output. That’s more than either Greece or Sweden! If something isn’t done, France will suffer a Greek-style crisis as investors lose trust in the government’s ability to pay its bills. The situation is so bad that even the country’s Socialist President claims that he plans to cut spending, but he faces a revolt in his own party from those who refuse to recognize reality. I’ve already pointed out that the Baltic nations are a role model since they made genuine spending cuts the moment the crisis began and they’re now enjoying an economic rebound. I realize this will be the understatement of the year, but France is not going to be the new Estonia. Unlike the Canadian Liberal Party or Australian Labor Party, it does not appear that the Socialist Party in France is willing to recognize reality and do the right thing. But the good news is that they don’t have any room to raise taxes. Successful people already are leaving the country because of punitive tax rates, and I suspect even President Hollande privately understands that France is on the wrong side of the Laffer Curve. So I expect there will be a fight. On one side, we’ll have the rational statists who recognize that spending cuts are needed to avoided a fiscal crisis. On the other side, we’ll have the irrational statists who blindly think more money can be squeezed from the rich with more class-warfare tax policy. P.S. There’s a lot to like about France, and I reported a few years ago that it was ranked as the top nation for good living. But that’s only if you already are rich. Now that the French national sport is taxation, productive people who want to become rich have a big incentive to go someplace else.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Jul 2013 23:18:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015