Last night at 8pm not-your-time, two hours after the Belgian and Swiss media had already published election results and 30 minutes after Nicolas Sarkozy deleted his Facebook page, the French media announced that socialist François Hollande ( great NYT bio
They're a little hardcore in their dismissal of, say, 70s France where major chunks of industry (e.g. Rhône-Poulenc, Direction Générale des Télécommunications, Renault) were both owned and controlled by the government, as being not socialist. But the 80s and 90s saw a lot of privatization all across Europe and even those entities where the state retained majority ownership (e.g. Électricité de France), it ceded hands-on control.
Remember what I said about entities where the state retained majority ownership?
<em>La Poste</em> is one of those. It&#039;s not really a full-on privatization since it&#039;s not publicly traded, and the minority owner is itself partly state-owned. Even as a corporate entity it&#039;s still subject to a raft of government mandates.
But yeah, I could see how losing Sarko as your nominal boss might cheer up a workplace :P
You may want to go look up the actual definition of &quot;socialist&quot;, since its defining characteristic is public ownership and control of the means of production.
Marxist theory was that the dictatorship of the proletariat would be socialist in nature, by the time you achieve the communist utopia [<em>funny joke, right?</em>] you don&#039;t have anything nationalized because there&#039;s no longer a concept of ownership.
Taxing the hell out of the rich is social democracy, which is not the same thing as socialism.
75% is less than the US top <em>Federal</em> rate from 1936 through 1964. What&#039;s wrong with 40% is that it would be a tax cut for the rich, as the top marginal rate in France is currently 41%.
Don&#039;t forget, though, they&#039;re getting a lot more for their money, like world class universal healthcare and a great rail network. Haven&#039;t driven an <em>autoroute</em> in a long-assed time but I&#039;d eat my shorts if you could find any of them in worse shape than the Cross-Bronx Expressway last time I was anywhere near the GWB. Oh, also too, <a href="http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Education_in_France#Tuition_costs" target="_blank">affordable college</a>.
If the French rich are worried about higher taxes, they should move to the US under the guise of &quot;job creator&quot; and wait for the tax cuts to roll in.
Meanwhile, &quot;La Bastille&quot; is where the prison used to stand. I believe the French mob tore it down to begin the Revolution. And, quite happily, it was never reconstructed.
Hah ha...jokes on him. There&#039;s not going to be a private sector any more!
I will gladly console Carla for him if he&#039;s too busy.
Daughter of old fat racist pig is racist pig.
Especially the kind that quit their jobs to become actresses and buy their middle-aged husbands Beatles records.
Although no true Frenchman would admit that any English cheese is worthy of the name, save, perhaps, stilton.
Well played.
They&#039;re a little hardcore in their dismissal of, say, 70s France where major chunks of industry (e.g. Rh&ocirc;ne-Poulenc, Direction G&eacute;n&eacute;rale des T&eacute;l&eacute;communications, Renault) were both owned and controlled by the government, as being not socialist. But the 80s and 90s saw a lot of privatization all across Europe and even those entities where the state retained majority ownership (e.g. &Eacute;lectricit&eacute; de France), it ceded hands-on control.
Remember what I said about entities where the state retained majority ownership?
<em>La Poste</em> is one of those. It&#039;s not really a full-on privatization since it&#039;s not publicly traded, and the minority owner is itself partly state-owned. Even as a corporate entity it&#039;s still subject to a raft of government mandates.
But yeah, I could see how losing Sarko as your nominal boss might cheer up a workplace :P
DO NOT WANT!
<em>&quot;Mangons! Mangons! Qu&#039;une moutarde pur Couvrir nos jambons!&quot;</em>
You may want to go look up the actual definition of &quot;socialist&quot;, since its defining characteristic is public ownership and control of the means of production.
Marxist theory was that the dictatorship of the proletariat would be socialist in nature, by the time you achieve the communist utopia [<em>funny joke, right?</em>] you don&#039;t have anything nationalized because there&#039;s no longer a concept of ownership.
Taxing the hell out of the rich is social democracy, which is not the same thing as socialism.
75% is less than the US top <em>Federal</em> rate from 1936 through 1964. What&#039;s wrong with 40% is that it would be a tax cut for the rich, as the top marginal rate in France is currently 41%.
Don&#039;t forget, though, they&#039;re getting a lot more for their money, like world class universal healthcare and a great rail network. Haven&#039;t driven an <em>autoroute</em> in a long-assed time but I&#039;d eat my shorts if you could find any of them in worse shape than the Cross-Bronx Expressway last time I was anywhere near the GWB. Oh, also too, <a href="http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Education_in_France#Tuition_costs" target="_blank">affordable college</a>.
If the French rich are worried about higher taxes, they should move to the US under the guise of &quot;job creator&quot; and wait for the tax cuts to roll in.
The traffic jam of red Ferraris--Bain Capital parking lot?
Nice photo of another protest by French farmers.
Meanwhile, &quot;La Bastille&quot; is where the prison used to stand. I believe the French mob tore it down to begin the Revolution. And, quite happily, it was never reconstructed.
Free cheese for the masses! High taxes for the wealthy! The end of Europe!
Romney must come out against this tragedy and promise to vacation in Iraq instead of France.