{"id":1291,"date":"2006-01-04T00:57:40","date_gmt":"2006-01-04T06:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1291"},"modified":"2006-01-04T21:04:36","modified_gmt":"2006-01-05T03:04:36","slug":"french-econ-policy-more-jacked-than-i-knew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1291","title":{"rendered":"French Econ Policy: More Jacked than I Knew"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay, so I knew about the stupid French governmental regulations capping work hours, bloating vacation and keeping an unsustainably low retirement age. I did not, however, have a clue at how anti-business and anti-employment<\/a> France’s tax policy was.<\/p>\n

Jacques Chirac, France’s president, has announced plans for tax reforms in an attempt to discourage companies from dismissing French workers or moving production overseas.<\/p>\n

In his televised New Year’s Eve address, Mr Chirac called on his government to meet the challenge of globalisation by changing the way it raises funds for social welfare – including unemployment benefits, family assistance, pensions and healthcare.<\/p>\n

The tax plan was the most significant new idea in Mr Chirac’s address, as he adopted a more friendly tone towards global capitalism than in previous speeches, calling on French people to “make globalisation an asset for our growth and our jobs”.<\/p>\n

Instead of taxing companies based on the number of employees, which experts say encourages them to dismiss workers and discourages them from hiring staff<\/strong>, the government is expected to examine alternative ways to raise funds for social welfare.<\/p>\n

“Today the more jobs a company cuts, the more production it moves overseas, the less social charges it pays.<\/strong> Our system of corporate charges must favour companies that employ people in France,” said Mr Chirac.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Please remember that the U.S. unemployment figure, even at the time well under six per cent, was considered an issue in the 2004 presidential campaign. Here we have a state, already wrestling with double-digit unemployment figures, that essentially punishes its economic contributors based upon how many people they employ. That is beyond sad, and it is far more screwed up than I would have given the French credit for managing.<\/p>\n

Ace<\/a> points us towards an article<\/a> [another version here<\/a>, as Yahoo!News expires their stories] stating that Chirac is struggling to remain relevant in today’s Franco politics. Should he manage a restructuring of such an abortion of common sense tax policy in his twilight days, I might just have to give him a hearty bravo. Unfortunately, I don’t think the weasel will manage anything of any significance that I would consider progress. After all, for years his legacy has looked to be cemented — Jacques Chirac, a worthless man who whiled away his country, opportunistically trading opposition to America for short-term French gain but at the expense of true principle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, so I knew about the stupid French governmental regulations capping work hours, bloating vacation and keeping an unsustainably low retirement age. I did not, however, have a clue at how anti-business and anti-employment France’s tax policy was. Jacques Chirac, France’s president, has announced plans for tax reforms in an attempt to discourage companies from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1291\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}