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You Won't Believe What The French Are Taxing Now...
Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog,
At our workshop in Chile some months ago, European MEP Nigel Farage blasted French President Francois Hollande as leading the pack “in the modern day Pantheon of idiots who are running countries around the world…”
(You can see Nigel’s scathing remarks here, about 35 seconds in to the clip)
Of course, the French president had recently introduced a ‘hate tax’ on its countries most successful people, driving out whatever few productive people remain in France.
But this hate tax was just the tip of le iceberg.
Just look at what they’ve done or announced just in the last month:
1) Double the corporate surtax
It’s not enough that France has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the developed world. On top of this, they have a corporate ‘surtax’, or a tax on top of the tax.
And earlier this month, they announced plans to DOUBLE it.
2) Increase reporting obligations
Anyone who has ever started a business knows that a new business is like a newborn baby. It’s critical to focus on growth, not on filling out a bunch of paperwork.
The French government doesn’t care about this. So they’ve recently LOWERED the bar for reporting obligations, requiring a businesses with top-line revenue of just 80,000 euros to submit time consuming and onerous VAT reports to the tax authorities.
3) Increased pension tax
France has one of the most bankrupt… and unsustainably generous… pension systems in the world.
But rather than completely overhauling the system and expect people to, you know, actually work past the age of 55, they’ve just decided to raise the pension tax. Again.
4) Energy drink tax
Not to be outdone by Michael Bloomberg’s soda tax in New York City, the French National Assembly has recently proposed to tax energy drinks… as much as ONE EURO ($1.37) per can.
5) Higher property taxes
Last month, the French government announced plans to revise property value assessments across the country, which serves as the basis for a number of property taxes.
6) Data tax [my personal favorite]
You can’t make this stuff up.
In one of the most absurd tax propositions in history, the French government now has the idea that they should tax data transfers outside the European Union.
They actually plan on proposing this at this week’s European Summit. Strangely, though, they don’t seem to even understand what this means. They’re just so desperate to tax something… anything. They’re just monkeys throwing darts at the wall right now.
And they’re getting ready for more.
Earlier this year, the French government promised a ‘tax pause’ in 2014, suggesting that they would not raise taxes next year.
Last month, though, they revised this pledge, saying that the tax pause would take effect in 2015 instead.
Needless to say, there will be no pause in 2015.
Why? Because France is broke. Like so many other nations across the West, France has been rendered completely insolvent by decades of unsustainable spending.
France has been in this position before. In the 18th century, the French Bourbon monarchy was the pinnacle of civilization.
Yet decades of unsustainable spending took their toll on the economy. They tried everything– raising taxes, debasing the currency… yet their was no avoiding the inevitable. Revolution.
And this period of turmoil, from the time the French people stormed the Bastille, to the time when calm prevailed, took 26-years.
In the meantime, they had internal civil war, external war against both Austria and Prussia, hyperinflation, and the genocidal dictatorship of Robespierre.
Conditions are similar now, both in France and across the West. This includes the Land of the Free.
We have reached a time where it’s imperative to look abroad at different options and opportunities. Clinging to blind patriotism– staying home, doing nothing, and trusting your government– is akin to taking a toaster into the bathtub.
Wealth and power have constantly shifted throughout history. And the transitions are rarely smooth or peaceful. It’s foolish to assume that this time is any different.
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I hear Canada is going to create a fart tax.
Shhhhh!! Don't let Al Gore get that idea cause he'll call it the "Personal Methane Emissions Tax" (PMET) to help reduce climate change!
They’re just monkeys throwing darts at the wall right now.
That doesn't smell like "darts."
Fucking frogs.
Put a tax on doggie doo, and yappie little poodles.
That will raise some revenue and no end of Hell.
While they are at it, they should tax posing, posturing, bad attitudes, and above all CIGARETTES.
The real colossal stupidity of this around the world is that the "leaders" are well aware they are trudging the well known, well-documented path to national failure. Yet they proceed with every step unflinchingly and right on queue.
They seem to think that because they've always been a step ahead of the plebes, able to exempt themselves from their own stupidity that they will be able to avoid the consequences that come with burning down your own house.
"We know this is all going to come down, but it won't bite us too hard." They'll find out too late, they were wrong.
Well, unlike Louis XVI, they will be able to plead that they only did what the plebes demanded of them.
Wake me when the sheeple who voted for all these village idiots wake up and are ready to take responsibility for their stupidity and do something about this. I'm no longer gonna co-sign for anyone else's bullshit.
dont you tell me wheere i can take MY toaster!!
schiff, farage, ands Dr. Paul... have you ever seen a finer panel? Those men should be our heads of state, not the morons weve got now.
"A lot of folks are still demanding more evidence before they actually consider Iraq a threat. For example, France wants more evidence. And you know I'm thinking, the last time France wanted more evidence they rolled right through Paris with the German flag." —David Letterman
"I don't know why people are surprised that France won't help us get Saddam out of Iraq. After all, France wouldn't help us get the Germans out of France." —Jay Leno
"Did you see the new bomb the government came up with? It weights 21,000 pounds. The Air Force tested this bomb in Florida and the bomb blast was so strong at Disneyworld 25 French tourists surrendered." —Jay Leno
"You know why the French don't want to bomb Saddam Hussein? Because he hates America, he loves mistresses and wears a beret. He is French, people." —Conan O'Brien
How about taxing 85% of the income of politicians and all public employess?
How about selling the Eiffel tower and surrounding area to create a big fat Chinatown?
Sounds more reasonable to me.
Those are some reasonably amusing jabs at the French, but the ubiquitous pro-war MSM propaganda is much more sickening than the jokes are funny.
TROLL DETECTED
Extrangely, and despite many Countries having it, you never ever hear of a WEALTH Tax neither in the USA, nor in Europe, which revealst the truth about who is really in control of the TAX system. A simple wealth tax of 2% per year would solve the USA deficit problems.
That is 2% of your net wealth every year.
Higher property taxes are an obvious no brainer since the source is easy to find and the law is easy to enforce.
This is one reason I see more areas here raising property taxes to 3.1% to 3.5%...for starters, esp in those States where there is no state income tax (like Texas, Florida, etc). The State needs revenue somehow since they cannot print and residential houses are an easy target.
You'll see lots more of this along the way.
Where do you get a ticket for that event? Paul, Schiff and Farage?
Funny that people thought that I was proposing a wealth tax. LOL. I'd be the last to propose that. I was just making an observation.
Also, imagine a banker like Jamie Dimon or Warren Buffet (right behind the scam concienciouslly enabled by Moody's that created the 2008 debacle) or other people like them. Can you imagine them allowing a wealth tax? LOL at the thought.
My observation is that this behaviour makes it real clear who is in control. At least to me.
The reason I make the observation is that the system as it is, is completely screwed. And the path we are following is on of self assured destruction.
Where I disagree with most posters that haven't lived what happens when the financial system comes down crashing (I lived through this type of MAJOR crashes and saw what happen to Society) is that there is not going to be ANY sudden "explosion" like situation, it's going to be a gradual degradation of our quality of life and of the Society we live in. We will be regressing as a community into the behaviours of our poorer brethern. Slowly, as inflation and moral hazard changes the behaviour of the coming generations for years to come. It will be sad and the new kids won't know better. This process really started with Bill Clinton. Don't forget the campaign funding scandal that was uncovered where the Chinese government was funding his campaign through thrid parties. It got uncovered and then covered. Since Clinton Trillions and Trillions of wealth have been shifted to Asia and the Middle East.
A lot of the "wealth" owned by the rich is debt, including odious debt and bad debt. Instead of a wealth tax, we can restore "mark to market" and stop protecting these bad debts from default. We can stop QE driving up the prices on the assets they hold. We can stop propping up real estate values. We can stop artificially holding down interest rates. We can stop subsidizing the big companies they own stock in. We can stop favoring large corporations by using taxes and regulations to protect them from upstart competitors. We can stop deficit spending that pumps money into "defense" (really war!) companies and companies with lucrative non-competitive government contracts. And we can stop the laws protecting the medical monopoly.
These policy changes would benefit the lower classes - cheaper housing, less inflation, higher real wages while still having labor competitively priced compared to capital goods (e.g. robots). And we can do it all without recking the market pricing mechanic that allows capitalism to allocate goods and services.
That's the problem with real estate as a "hard asset" investment. You can't move it, you can't hide it and it always comes with a parasite attached.
I have been looking for a house, and I noticed a funny thing. The higher the property tax, the higher the price.
You are probably thinking, no shit Sherlock, taxes are proportional to price. Duh. But after 50 hours on Zillow, I dont' think it's a one-directional relationship. Taxes and market price have a mutually reinforcing positive feedback relationship. Where taxes are tea-party-low, and the schools are junk, and the public services are third-world standard, houses are priced like tin shacks in Zimbabwe. But where the schools are good, and public services are good, and government actually functions, and taxes are stiff, house prices are always out of my &%$#@ price range.
Some people look at real estate as just a store of value, and bitch about the carrying cost (property taxes). Others view real estate as somewhere to live or do business, and they will pay a big tax premium to be in a non-third-world environment. Location location location. Unless you are farming, mining, or clear-cutting, property derives its value from public services !!! It's so bizarre. If they eliminated your property taxes, your value would fall by half at least (which might be fine with you if you just plan to live there with cable TV until death, and don't care about your heirs.)
High taxes don't increase the price of real estate. It's the other way around. If services are provided efficiently, schools are relatively good and people moving in bid up prices. They're also more willing to pay taxes since they see the money isn't being wasted. When a street lamp goes out in a "nice" neighborhood, 1 call from a resident and it gets fixed promptly. That's because residents of affluent neighborhoods notice immediately when their complaints are ignored and hold the local politicians accountable.
Isn't that what a 2% inflation rate is?
2% my ass. Any idiot knows it much higher than that. And yes, the USSA does tax inflation, double whammy.
A simple wealth tax of 2% per year would solve the USA deficit problems.
Wow... talk about something that would be incredible for the black market!
A simple wealth tax of 2% per year would solve the USA deficit problems. You seriously believe that Congress would not factor the increased revenue into their spending baseline?
What would really solve US deficit problems is to simply hang every public representative who voted to incur net public debt, at the end of each session.
why oh why is the solution never to just spend less?
We already have wealth taxes and they are a lot more than 2%. They are dollar debasement through inflation and financial repression, paying you 0.00001 % interest on your savings.
Are you really as f'ing dumb as your post would suggest?
The Netherlands has an annual wealth tax of 1.4% on all financial assets over €20,000. France has a 2% wealth tax on all assets over €800,000 which includes homes, cars, art collections. Both countries national debt continues to grow. If you think a wealth tax will solve the deficit you are smoking some pretty bad stuff. The politicians will find new ways to spend the extra tax revenue (and take their cut) rather than pay a dime off of the debt.
I agree with the others that a simple, continuous wealth tax proposal is very naive and solves nothing. Instead, the wealth tax must be structured in a set of policies that change the incentives of the rich who control the country. For example:
-- foreign wars and all related expenses can be funded only with a wealth tax.
-- any time TBTF financial institutions need a bailout, there shall be a 10% wealth tax that tax year.
-- one-time wealth tax of $100,000, spread across all the rich, for every American job outsourced overseas.
-- all environmental clean-up (superfund type stuff) shall be funded with wealth taxes.
This approach discourages the wrong sorts of goverment spending, and doesn't give politicians extra funds for pork.
No more Terrance and Phillip
"modern day Pantheon of idiots" Hahaha.... I love Farage's speeches.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDDJvC2CGaU
Surely one of the high points of Western civilization.
TROLLS ARE EXPECTED !
Considering the level and tonality of this article, we will surely have a fireworks of troll's hateful comments,
in place of the high level interesting debates we are waiting for ...
I would gladly pay a fart tax if I could fart directly into Hollande's face.
Didn't Argentina just introduce a fart tax on cows? I guess they want to crush their longest standing industry..
The thing that most people don't get is people just don't pay these taxes in Europe, especially the wealthy.
Entitlement King (Obama) meet the Tax King (Hollande), maybe you guys could get together and really fix shit, no.......ok then, at least throw a really cool hip hop/Techno rave with lots of french hookers and blow!
Not many French hookers in France, or anywhere.
The French hookers may be african but they're thin and hot ,, none of them have the Moochelle butt.
Re: The thing that most people don't get is people just don't pay these taxes in Europe
Yeah, always wondered about that. Everybody knows about Greeks. But I've always wondered what the rest of the EU is like.
There's more and more "off-the-books" stuff in the US too.
The black market economy is 12% of the official economy in Europe and 9% in the USA. It is growing in both economies as taxes increase.
Higher than 12 in France, and much higher in the rest of club med. Much lower in Germany.
All ex-soviet states have quite high unofficial economy, but they are nothing compared to Club Med. Here in Finland it is actually hard to get goods/services without receipt.
uhhh...tax the shit out of the top 1%.
Yes, thats a grand plan, more trickle down theft.
it's never been tried....
Sure it has, it's called nationalization, worked out great for the government, not so much for the poor plebes. You are young, you will figure out some day that they can take it all but you still ain't going to get shit out of it.
You are young, you will figure out some day that they can take it all but you still ain't going to get shit out of it.
Comment of the day, Booboo.
wow, you are old and wise. We could start by rolling taxes 'back' to what they were in the ronald regean years.
My God, you're a fucking idiot. Quit trolling here and go back to FailyKos, or whatever stupid Libtard site you came from.
why don't you go the briebart site you are more suited for?
Hmmm... I wonder how the 1% just seem to avoid taxes, time after time?
Simple, the ones who don't dodge the taxes are no longer part of the 1%.
Income trusts bitchez, never pay taxes again!
How about we find a crime (theft, fraud, treason, yeah treason we likey...) and imprison the 1% and all the politicians who keep feeding that beast. Then we take their ill gotten wealth back and use it for the public good - like remodelling the government to be something as framed by the Constitution.
Oh, and cut spending too. Duh.
Nice to hear the resounding voice of Nigel Farage, somebody who can still talk like an actual human being.
http://www.fakenation.info/please/does-a-robot-write-the-white-houses-emails
you should mention that someone helped a bit Bourbons to spend money they didn't have (debt?)... and you know who are those helping chosen ones...
No, I do believe they will tax anything and everything.
Beware the penny's on your eyes.
I wonder what kind of ride the fairyman gives you for a penny. It's the last ride you'll take, don't skimp on it.
#41
Dude.
That's ferry man.
And he is one guy you do not want to piss off. Trust me.
He could be both...
My all time favourite is the 'death tax'.
we'll tax you even when you're dead,...
One, two, three, four (for you, nineteen for me)
One, two (one, two, three, four)
Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
'Cos I'm the taxman
Yeah, I'm the taxman
Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all
'Cos I'm the taxman
Yeah, I'm the taxman
(If you drive a car—car)
I'll tax the street
(If you try to sit—sit)
I'll tax your seat
(If you get too cold—cold)
I'll tax the heat
(If you take a walk—walk)
I'll tax your feet
Taxman
'Cos I'm the taxman
Yeah, I'm the taxman
Don't ask me what I want it for
(Ha, ha, Mr. Wilson)
If you don't want to pay some more
(Ha, ha, Mr. Heath)
'Cos I'm the taxman
Yeah, I'm the taxman
Now my advice for those who die
(Taxman)
Declare the pennies on your eyes
(Taxman)
'Cos I'm the taxman
Yeah, I'm the taxman
And you're working for no one but me (Taxman)
I see dead economies!
Me too, but Japan proves that a zombie economy can hang around for a long time without falling off the face of the earth.
Japan proves that a zombie economy can hang around for a long time without falling off the face of the earth.
Well, they are all (more or less) interlocked zombie economies. Once the cracks open up, it's likely to become spectacular.
Japan's people had savings that the Government could rape and pillage. Most every other Government's people also are deeply indebted. There is nothing left to steal.
how about an air tax, i mean you can't expect air to be free.
Air is free, but exhaling is carbon taxable, you despicable, insensitive, inconsiderate serial polluter. Don't breath so much, you're hurting me.
Ow. Ow.
Ow.
......breathing or farting????????? and where would the meter be positioned?????
any answers????
A tax on QE would be better , it could be used to pay off sovereign debt and would actually increase over time or if the share market ever went down.
Now you can excuse yourself while your head explodes...
Farting should have a higher tax rate than breathing. Methane is supposedly 25 times as effective a greenhouse gas as CO2.
meter(s) plural
why have one when you can have two at twice the price
government program after all
Why do jews have such big noses? Cause air is free.
Why do the French have such big noses?
Because air is not (yet) taxable?
I was just preparing a rant about your disgraceful Obamacare-shutdown-debt ceiling fiasco, thus astutely implying that we Europeans are clearly less of a basket case than the US, when my eye caught the following title on express.be, a Belgian newssite: Shutdown dreigt voor Europees Parlement: 'Geld is na 15 november op', which is Flemish for 'Looming shutdown for the European Parliament: Out of money after 15th november'. You see, apparently the European member states have been overly optimistic in estimating the European Union's budget for 2013, which means no funds will be available after 11/15/2013 to meet the EU's financial obligations until the end of the year. Granted, the additional budget required amounts to a mere 3 to 4 billion euro, pocket change in today's world, but I promise I will try for some humility from now on.
"humility" - surely there's a tax for that.
Not enuf to make a dent even at a100% tax rate
Hubris seems to result in a tax credit though.
Re: I will try for some humility from now on.
Come on, this is ZH and politics. Politics means never admiting you're wrong.
I promise you will come out the other end with no debt limit at all, just like we did.
The European Parliament is completely irrelevant. A hot air generation facility blah blah blah.
It's the council of ministers who run the show.
Do we really need people employed permanently to create new laws? What we need is a law tax. And why do we pay them to do this? Surely they should be paying us to create new laws. Make it clear what is going on "Buy a law". Then it can be branded in the law books.
The "Kraft food regulation law" designed to get rid of small producers of X just as an example.
A tax tax!
In the U.S., there already is a "law tax." It's called a "campaign contribution."
At some point soon, we in America will shut down the United States government forever.
And won't that just confuse the living shit out of you Europeans!
A while ago, when we first said that we could have a country without a king, you guys thought that was a contradiction in terms.
The US has Obama, pretty much a de facto king.
indeed, we are confused. look at me, last week I watched a US fleet with supercarrier. Oh boy, a sight to behold. And the planes...
and now you tell me it's going to disappear? What are your plans for all that hardware? A garage sale? The scene out of Toy Story, where the boy outgrows the silliness of childhood?
What is the tax on calling someone an eeeediote!!!!!
This will bankrupt the NSA!!
Are the 0-bits taxed less than the 1-bits? Inquiring minds gotta know...
Next time they'll tax every tax payment by further 0.1 percent. Sounds negligible, doesn't it?
Wait a minute, that means you are never paid up.
They have good pastries tho, gotta give them credit.
pastries will be taxed too
Cheese eating surrender monkeys!
Tax cheese.
And monkeys.
Ahh oui, your minkey... :>D
US dollar continues dropping. To the lows we go.
then short the French Franc
'
'
'
Sounds like France is a bug in search of a window.
•?•
V-V
Dontcha mean a bug in search of a bug zapper? Economic suicide, bitchez!
When all else fails (and we all know these taxes WILL fail), everyone will get Cyprused.
That is just a slightly bigger can kick.
The problem of socialism remains...
And lets get really creative with new taxes:
Window tax
Hair tax - both head and underpants based, other wise everyone would just shave their heads
Horse tax - for those trying to get out of paying car tax
Sex tax - all females to be fitted with chastity belts that only open using a token from the gubbermint. All for the low low price of €100 a fuck
Water tax.... wait that one's already real!? What the holy fuck!!
I get taxed for the rain that lands on my property. Seriously. Even if it doesn't rain. Based on projections of what it would cost to "clean" my rainwater if it did rain. $629/yr.
there ain't gonna be no revolution. lots of people are unhappy, getting screwed, whatever, no question about it. but the conditions for revolt aren't even close. don't forget globalization is an american project, and not only do we hold the best cards,(grc, nukes, food surplus, etc.) we are the dealer as well. what we give we can damn sure take away. not that i'm happy about it, but i don't think i'm wrong. it's a giant, all in proposition, and like any big undertaking a certain amount is being devised on the fly, very turbulent for sure. besides, if a revolt did break out, even if it were close by, with the flick of a kill switch you won't know about it. now back to our regularly scheduled program...
Re: lots of people are unhappy, getting screwed
People are alwasy unhappy. But, overall, this is the best time in the history of the planet to be a serf.
And, humanity should be proud of that. We really do now have a chicken in every pot. And, what else can you really want?
(Ok, maybe some bling, so a chicken in every pimped-out Chrysler 300, but that's possible now too).
A revolt might not be as dramatic as your notions of a revolt. It might consist of men deciding to just "go through the motions", as in the USSR, or becoming herbivorous, as in Japan, or working in the gray economy, as in Europe.
nick, that's a good point, but you're forgeting one thing. the head of the snake no longer needs us to be obedient productive citizens. money printing and offshoring frees them from the constraints of all that. they just need bodies, parked in a section 8, near a walmart. i disagree that this is going to collapse into some sort of economic civil war. guys like you and i who want a little more out of life will have to be a little more clever and work a little harder. i wish i could remember who commented last week that most of us on this blog are pretty good at cutting deals, so get out there and revamp your situation. you might not like it, i sure don't, but it is certainly doable for most of us. the low skill people swallow their pride and take the handout.
In France they have monkeys throwing darts, in the U.S our monkeys throw hand grenades. Yeah we're motherfucking number 1 again!
Fuck the French
If you've ever been around a gualoises in an enclosed space,
you never forget it..., no matter how hard you try.
My grandmother smoked Gauloises and Gitanes all her 94 years. She would smoke while cooking without flicking the ash. It would sometimes grow over an inch long.
Hey! Maybe they can tax the Americans for using all that prime real estate in Colleville-sur-Mer to keep their dead soldiers buried in!
It costs more now, to support oligarchs, than it did before.
Eventually they end up getting their heads loped off. Ho Hum.
The sign on the White House door says Tax Pause Tomorrow.
well there is an old saying in France ; even the dead are made to vote by certain politicians.
Maybe the new trend is to make the dead pay taxes as well.
Its very much the rage; when a guy like John Major wants to tax the rich in UK. He had some nice things to say about the Conservatives, his party, which apply for sure to the GOP and the french equivalent, the UMP :
The right wing parties (Conservatives) only conspire against their own. (That has been amply proven by GOP "civil war".
The left wing parties (Labour) are more egalitarian they conspire against everybody, and they tax everybody.
That sums it up very well in all three countries.
Moving on to more pressing things in the field of doom and gloom; humanity having lost its boom wisdom tooth...
I like the new catch phrase of the coming decade : TCNTF tm
the "too corrupt not to fail".
They are the prime people to tax! They will go down anyway. As you've noticed JPM is top on that list.
Falak, always your comments are thought provoking.
But is not the the death tax, very much what you speak of?
To take 50% of your net worth, at the time of your death, is contemptable.
the death tax you talk about is inheritance tax. That's old hat. For children inheriting their parent's wealth in France its a sliding scale which maxes at 20%. I don't know how that compares with other nations. It maxes at 60% only for non filial inheritors.
I'm talking about income taxing the dead; now that would truly be a french paradox, a world premier!
(Just kidding, its not something those government shills are thinking of but you never know, when the banks blow up they will Cyprus the rich and corporates. No other choice!).
If they could they would as they always go after those who can't touch them. They have had to instead resorting to taxing those who are yet to be born. Unfortunately as even this is based on projections that are predictably flawed, we may have to reach out to interstellar communities for a broader tax base.
Canada taxes the dead. When a person dies they are deemed to have sold everything they leave behind and must pay income tax on the profit. No estate can be settled until Revenue Canada issues a certificate saying the tax has been paid. This takes several years.
They should consider a tax on slamming gold at the close.
If there was a ZH tax I would be broke by next Friday.
They could progressively tax UP ARROWS and have a tax credit for DOWN ARROWS.
Time to bring back the tax on bread and flour.
So they can refurbish the Bastille.
Will they institute the only tax that will work -- a wealth tax?
How about fiscal responsibility without wealth redistribution?
Hey, wait -- I have an idea!
How about we do away with force in human affairs!
Only allow transactions that are voluntary on both sides, which means you little animals don't get to 'tax' me even if you all vote for it unanimously!
See -- if you want me to pay for something, you would have to convince me I wanted it, or persuade me that I would like to contribute to it!
And you don't get to put a gun to my head to do the persuasion!
Wow. Let's try that form of 'government' next, when this putrescence burns to the ground.
With a wealth tax, "you" wouldn't pay any taxes at all except a few excise taxes. The fat cats worth billions of dollars would, you know, the ones who've been stealing the middle class' wealth for the last 50-100 years, they would pay.
Well, see, how it works is -- if I think force is wrong, I won't use it against others.
And when I get brave enough, I won't allow it to be used against me.
See how that works?
Since you advocate volunteerism, which is THE NOBLE IDEAL, is it right to force Socialists to adhere to that Libertarian Standard?
That is the reason WHY WE are destined for FAILURE. Unless WE can have them voluntarily change their minds then we are pissing in the wind. Some group will decide to collectivise and decide that stealing your Wealth is okay.
There is no Political Solution. You might attempt to set yourself up in a Libertarian Community. But even those will end up failing as someone will be satisfied with rundown roads and freeload off of the others who will pay to repair them.
There is just too much evidence as I can show you the state of the Libertaian Road in front of my place and contrast it with the state of the coerced Road (Taxes) to the side. Which do you bet is in a state of disrepair?
I really like the ideal. I ascribe to the ideal. But reality bites me in the ass. Then I understand that there is no Political Solutionn and pray for my Death.
"With a wealth tax, "you" wouldn't pay any taxes at all except a few excise taxes."
What you just said here is a fucking great idea, except for the stupid part about the wealth tax.
People really need to stop wasting time debating on how to reform the tax system and concentrate on how to best starve the beast.
+1000
well said, and so simple it hurts
France, where the solution for a failing socialist state is to elect a bigger socialist.
Take a guess on how that is working out.
My hope for the French is the same as my hope for myself.
I hope we all get exactly what we deserve, and soon.
Please, soon.
on the one hand, paris is 20% arabs. on the other hand, they really don't want to go back to momo-lands. so, they can probably take some pretty big 'free stuff' cuts.
demographically france will be black and muslim in 20 years, tops. I dont worry so much about what will become of france as I do what will become of its nuclear warheads
Tax the US for spying on them!
"We have reached a time where it’s imperative to look abroad at different options and opportunities. Clinging to blind patriotism– staying home, doing nothing, and trusting your government– is akin to taking a toaster into the bathtub."
Hey, look abroad and try Ecuador...
http://yourescapetoecuador.com/retirement/why-should-you-retire-in-ecuad...
And yet the French keep chugging along.. We have the reserve currency and some of us here expect some sort of horrendous collapse, never going to happen just a slow slide to 3rd world status for the middle class. The best part, the middle class will take it, because for the most part they are stupid, anesthetized sheep.
Sorry for my english. That tax is not the most important thing, that's just another slap in the people's face. The country is already broken. The most important thing, it's from Paris to Marseille, most people are upset, show more and more anger. Even the old catholic bourgeoisie, even constitued corp. (army*, police, fireman, hospital, administration, etc), workers, middle-class... Old left and right wings "clivage" does not work anymore, even this, it's broke. Holland is the most hated president form the history of the french républic (only 23% of "sympathizers" (?)).Libya and syria (and afganistan) was a total mess. EUSSR is a total mess too. Corruption and collusion between public sector and private/financial sector is everywhere at his highest. Could end badly.
* http://minu.me/b0rs
Don't forget about that little foray into MALI.
"Could end badly" with what slingshots or curse words, the French turned their muskets in..
Evanescence - Bring Me To Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YxaaGgTQYM (4:14)
taxes go higher, black market gets bigger