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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Samizdata quote of the day Oh yes, I have put my house in London on the market too! I live close to a large French language school and there are many shops near there aimed at French clientele, so when I read the latest news from France, I increased the asking price by about ten percent. I am sure that splashing sound in the distance is the waves of wealthy French businessmen swimming across the Channel, clutching their chequebooks in their teeth and feverishly looking to spend their dosh while they still can.
– heard at Samizdata HQ in London, pertaining to this.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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Remember effwits who can’t make it in the business world go into politics.
Hollande has said the new tax is “symbolic” and designed to make a political statement about economic fairness. The tax is not ultimately expected to be a big money-maker, with the French government estimating the tax will affect roughly 470 companies.
You want to make a political statement, you make a speech, not pass a law that on his own admission is pretty pointless. This clown Hollande doesn’t expect a second term. surely?
RAB,
The total tax take will go down as companies try and circumvent this vindictive tax will reduce their tax liabilities and the politicians of Frogistan of all places forget their history and taxation.
Yes I know Regional. But now he has passed a Law. Passing them is easy, repealing them almost never happens. The reason why is that Politicians can never be seen to be wrong.
There was another even further Left candidate at the last election than Hollande. He advocated 100% taxes on the Rich, and got 19% of the vote!
Like yeah, I’m going to earn millions and hand it over to the State piecemeal with nothing for me whatsoever and relish it, is going to take on isn’t it? Makes George Harrison writing Taxman about how the MAN had stolen his hard earned cash in the 60’s Britain, at 93% for them but bugger all for him, seem like mere carping doesn’t it?
The French are very weird in their thinking, take it from me, I had two French Aunts. Once an idea stuck in their heads there was no shifting it; the great Gaulic shrug came into play. They think they are the most civilised, indeed the only civilised Europeans you see.
This will end badly. Which is a shame because I am very fond of France and visit it regularly.
RAB,
The Frogs always bounce back, one way or another. Apparently the Left have had a big victory in Italy and given the financial problems they face Berlusconi is well out of it. European economics seems to be floundering in debt but catch this anvil and tread water.
A lot of people forget that the French were fighting civil wars in Indochina and Algeria soon after WW2, developed high speed trains, nuclear reactors, built their own nuclear weapons, jet fighters which were held in high regard, missiles i.e. Exocet, introduced innovations, have conducted peace keeping missions with some success, you f**k with their marines and Foreign Legion at your own risk. France is always going to be broke like Britain since WW1, so don’t write them off, they might be f**ked but who isn’t?
People get the governments they deserve.
If it was just a few high earners who are to be taxed at 75% it would not matter too much, but in fact the average worker has been well and truly shafted for decades now. Social security charges include 31 separate deductions and total 62.5% of earnings from the first euro!
To give an example:- a friend earns 2070 euro each month but after SS deductions she has just under 700 euros.
It is possible to live independently for between 1400 and 1600 euros a month. For many people it is better to live on the dole, stay with parents or work on the black.
France is on the edge of the cliff.
The tax is for two years only. Surely no Frenchman will move because of that.
Dom
Yes, of course,just as the income tax in Great Britain was a temporary wartime measure, which went away and then returned and regards itself as part of the family.
Yes France is doomed – and wealthy people will be rushing over here.
However, the London property market is also a bubble (I am astonished it has not burst already) so the person is wise – selling at the top of the market.
They should make a enough money to retire somewhere nice (Chichester, Wells, Ludlow, Dartmouth – so many places to choose from) with the difference between London prices and non London prices.
Although remember – once out of London always out of London (you can never buy back in).
Although it might be better for a really wealthy French person to move to Switzerland or to Guernsey (perhaps try and help make that little stock market a bit bigger….).
If France can’t keep Gerard Depardeu (sp?), then you know they’re doing something wrong. For God’s sake, the man bailed from France to *Russia* over the capitalist promise of “we won’t take all your money”. Quite an irony: since back at the start of the 20th century there were those who bailed from the US and western Europe to Russia for the promises of the worker’s paradise. Strange, I don’t see many running to France for the promises of the worker’s paradise and the people’s soviet.
Most of those posting on the Internet in favor of high taxation of the rich usually point to the success post-WW2 America to bolster their cases. High taxes on the rich, yet the wealthy were still getting wealthy. They do not realize we don’t live in that world anymore, where going Galt wasn’t easy and the US was the only major unbombed country with working factories and a population to produce goods in them. The wealthy and even the not-so wealthy are now quite mobile, as is their money and their business.
Of course, you can always squeeze the golden goose before it escapes your grasp. The Nazis levied fines&bribes upon Jews smart enough to leave Germany and wealthy enough to emigrate, taking any wealth said Jews can’t carry. I understand Americans giving up their citizenship have to pay some steep fees to the IRS before renouncing their citizenship. Maybe France has/will impliment a similar countermeasure to the wealthy deciding to take their business elsewhere. Not quite sure how you work your way around that one. I presume there are more knowledgeable people who could answer that question, but I can’t afford to pay them for their advice.
Someone once explained that the secret to being a successful French intellectual was to find a foreign thinker whose work had not been translated into French and steal his ideas. Sartre stole from Heidegger and Raymond Aron started out by stealing Max Weber’s stuff.
It would be nice if some bright,gutsy French student stole from Thomas Sowell.
Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, but whenever I see Francois Hollande, I can’t shake the feeling that he is a dead ringer for Charles Augustus Milverton AKA “The Master Blackmailer” in the Jeremy Brett Adaptation.
It’s not just the face and the glasses, it’s the crazy eyes.
Maybe it’s the ideology too 😉
Hmmm that’s not a very good video. I meant to link to the one ending in uXxHx_sGQKo, but I’ve not been having the best luck with links so I’ll let you figure it out.
To my mind at least, the resemblance is uncanny.