It is a major hassle to leave a country and set up somewhere else, if people are doing it, there likely is significant oppression developing, or ongoing, in the country.
This brings me to the latest news from France.
The French consulate in London has estimated that up to 400,000 French nationals now live in London, a number equal to the population of France’s sixth largest city.
And the French can now be found in significant numbers in many countries beyond even the UK. The Independent reports:
The Foreign Ministry recorded 1.6 million expats at the end of last year. But that figure only includes people who had registered at French consulates abroad. “So the real figure is twice as high,” says Hélène Charveriat, the delegate-general of the Union of French Citizens Abroad.
She told The Independent that while the figure of 2.5 million expatriates is “not enormous”, what is more troubling is the increase of about 2 per cent each year.
“Young people feel stuck, and they want interesting jobs. Businessmen say the labour code is complex and they’re taxed even before they start working. Pensioners can also pay less tax abroad,” she says.
France’s unemployment rate is hovering around 10 per cent. As for high-earners, almost 600 people subject to a wealth tax on assets of more than €800,000 (£630,000) left France in 2012, 20 per cent more than the previous year.Not much can destroy a country with greater ferocity than an oppressive government.
Luc Chatel, secretary general of the UMP, told Le Figaro that there is “an anti-work mentality, absurd fiscal pressure, a lack of promotion prospects, and the burden of debt hanging over future generations."
The Next French presidential election is scheduled to be held in April and May 2017. It is likely that President François Hollande. The French now realize he is one bad dude. But 2017 is a long way off, much more damage can be done. And who will the French replace Hollande with?
Sadly, the French aren't reading, the great French men, Frédéric Bastiat, Jean-Baptiste Say and Anne Robert Turgot and Jacques Reuff, who knew a thing or two about the way in which a society should be set up so that it could prosper.
And of course the people leaving are the high producers and the potentially high producers. That leaves a higher concentration of lower producers and people with their hands out.
ReplyDeleteWe have often wondered what happens to a country when the takers reach a critical ratio versus the producers. France may be our science experiment. Similar to Greece, but even Germany won't be able to bail out France.