We used to have a socialist premier of our province. Like any socialist politician who never held a real job before ascending to power, he did not understand money. It was near the end of his term (he resigned in disgrace over a casino owner arranging to add a deck to the premier's home) that he began to catch on to the immutable rule: money out = money in.
I remember him saying, I never understood that when I gave government employees a raise, I needed to also raise taxes to pay for the raise (or something like that). If only more politicians would learn the lesson sooner than later.
Over in France, the new socialist government jacked up taxes on the "rich" to 75%, leading some of them to move to less hostile countries. In an interview with a French newspaper, ceo Bernard Charles of Dassault Systemes intimated that the higher corporate taxes cost 200 jobs.
What he meant is that Dassault could have hired 200 more employees for what it now has to pay each year in higher income tax.
By raising taxes so high, the government now would not collect income tax on 200 jobs, along with not collecting sales taxes on the money that would now not be spent by the 200.
Maybe any aspiring politician wanna-be should be required to run a small business for a year, before tossing their hat into the ring. Oh, and if the they bankrupt the business, then they are prohibited from running for public office. For life.
Some pretty aggressive policies. Many here (in the UK) are affected too as overseas holiday home owners are in their (the French governments) sights. (Not that this affects me directly..unfortunately). There are estimated 200,000+ holiday home owners from the UK that have properties in France. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18863535 . I hear recently that there are proposed increases of up to 160% on taxes for beer sales, a move which will be emotive to many. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9644097/Francois-Hollande-pushes-for-160pc-rise-in-beer-taxes.html
Posted by: Allanbehrens | Nov 06, 2012 at 02:35 AM