French Government On Brink Of Collapse
French President François Hollande has brought his country to ruin and threatens to bring down Euroland with him. His insane budget plans cannot possibly meet EU rules before 2017 and even that assumes some recovery. Meanwhile, Hollande has lost his last government partner. The PRG chief, Jean-Michel Baylet, announced on Sunday television that his small center-left party PRG will terminate the alliance with the Socialists. Prime Minister Manuel Valls has stated that if the tax burden on the middle class in the draft budget 2015 is not reduced, the party will abandon the Socialists and withdraw its three ministers. Hollande’s term runs until 2017.
These people cannot grasp that raising taxes is not the way to stimulate an economy. They people should spend their own money – politicians only confiscate and then spend according to their self-interest. Sorry – it just does not work.
Disclosure: None.
Very badly written!
How so?
I haven't been to France for a long time but I recollect that there were plans to charge very high taxes on foreign owners of second homes. The tax on beer was increased and suddenly France is no longer the dream destination for the English. For British people who had hoped to retire to France the withdrawal of the Winter Heating Allowance is yet another disincentive. Incidentally the way that the UK government calculates the average temperature of France beggars belief as most sane individuals would regard the calculations as Fraud and False Accounting.
If you are living in France and paying your taxes to the French Government, why on earth would anyone expect the British Taxpayer to pay you a heating allowance?
The very suggesting is ridiculous. I assume it was another of Gordon Brown's stupid giveaways like free bus passes. When I go out I have a choice of using my Ferrari or using my free bus pass. Enough said!
I'd hoped to retire to France, the climate and cuisine have always appealed to me, but the cost of living and tax - system have now ruled this out. Friends who have lived there 10 years regularly travel over the border to Spain for routine shopping as costs are so much lower for even basics like meat and bread, and the tax and spend policies of successive governments have destroyed many small businesses which relied on the tourist industry.
To their credit they have fantastic healthcare compared to the UK. It is devoid of the huge "management" structure of the UK, and consultants are well-paid, but not at the massively disproportional levels seen in the UK.
The state of the housing market is a fair reflection of the economy in most countries, understandable as peoples basic needs are shelter and food, and France abounds in vacant properties which local and foreign investors have abandoned, re-furbishment costs being too high, and capital gains tax at a level which outsiders find unacceptable.
People need to be left in charge of their own spending. Taxing them does not create jobs or wealth for anyone, and does not stimulate a desire to invest by anyone, local or otherwise.
I think the great European Experiment is rapidly drawing to what has always been it's inevitable conclusion!