Within his first six months in office French President Hollande managed to raise national capital gains taxes from 34.5 to 62.2 and now the French people are freaking-out. Juxtapose that with the hatred that American Golfer Phil Mickelson experienced when he acknowledged last month that between federal and California state income taxes hes having 62 or 63" of his earnings taken away each year and the reality-check is even more striking. In short the French apparently now believe that this level of taxation is a dangerous and destructive thing. In America however rich guy" Phil Mickelson is a dangerous and destructive thing.
People call this the new normal. Let me assure you there is nothing normal about this at all. Its the new abnormal and it wont last because as free people we wont stand for it…"
With those remarks business magnate and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes drew thunderous applause from his audience.
It was October of 2012 about 2 weeks before our last presidential election. Forbes was speaking to a crowd of 10000 in the comforts of a beautiful indoor sporting area (the Idaho Center"). He was headlining the Power Up!" business and motivational seminar with Sarah Palin Rudy Giuliani and Zig Ziglar protg Krish Dhanam (fyi-we need more native-born Americans to understand American liberty as well as this guy from India named Krish" understands it).
Forbes had just finished explaining why a confluence of cheap credit billions of dollars in stimulus spending lots of new taxes on rich people" and a growing-by-the-second government debt have all failed to stimulate our economy. He was confirming with his technical explanation what many of us instinctively know in our hearts: the reality that no organization- no individual or family no business no government can spend its way out of debt and re-distribute its way to prosperity.
We should all hope that Forbes will be proven right that eventually as free people we wont stand for it." Because in the election that occurred two weeks after Forbes speech Americans didnt merely stand for it" - we asked for more of it."
Yet here is our reality: if Americans continue to vote (either blindly or intentionally) for politicians who viciously take expanding portions of wealth away from our societys producers and then selfishly redistribute that wealth to the people of their choosing eventually the producers will stop producing as much wealth the politicians will run out of others peoples money to redistribute and we will all suffer the consequences.
The social disorder and collapse of Greece and Spain could be our future in the U.S. if as free people" we dont choose more wisely.
For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear examples abound in this present day of how not to construct a national economy. Greece and Spain qualify yes and so does Venezuela. And within the last few months the news from France another bureaucratic debt-laden and not-so-free-anymore part of the world should be a wake-up call to Americans as well.
After five years of service from President Nicolas Sarkozy a leader who sought to reduce government controls of the economy and to stimulate private enterprise French voters tossed him aside last May in favor of a presidential candidate who was nominated jointly by both the French Socialist Party and Frances Radical Left Party." Francois Hollande campaigned with a set of 60 propositions - referred to as his manifesto" which included raising taxes on corporations; raising taxes on banks; raising taxes on rich" individuals; lowering the official retirement age back down to age 60 from 62; hiring 60000 new government school teachers; and establishing government subsidized youth jobs programs" in regions of high unemployment (does any of this sound familiar?).
Today many French citizens seem horrified that shock! President Hollande is doing precisely what he pledged to do. The situation is very serious" noted Laurence Parisot head of Frances largest labor union MEDEF in an interview with the London Telegraph. Some business leaders are in a state of quasi-panic" he claimed as the Telegraph reported that France is sliding into a grave economic crisis and risks a full-blown hurricane as investors flee rocketing tax rates."
Within his first six months in office French President Hollande managed to raise national capital gains taxes from 34.5 to 62.2 and now the French people are freaking-out. Juxtapose that with the hatred that American Golfer Phil Mickelson experienced when he acknowledged last month that between federal and California state income taxes hes having 62 or 63" of his earnings taken away each year and the reality-check is even more striking.
In short the French apparently now believe that this level of taxation is a dangerous and destructive thing. In America however rich guy" Phil Mickelson is a dangerous and destructive thing.
And consider this: Laurence Parisot a major national labor union leader (arguably a counterpart of Teamsters leader James P. Hoffa here in the U.S.) is upset because a Socialist President is taking more money from the rich" and re-distributing it to others via government employment programs. Such policies would seem like a dream come true for the AFL-CIO yet the union leader in France seems to understand that the rich" in his country play a vital role in other peoples livelihoods and simply seizing more of their money is harmful for everybody even unionized workers.
The backlash that the Socialist President is enduring suggests that maybe the citizenry is waking up and facing reality. But are Americans facing economic reality yet?
We observed in the so-called fiscal cliff negotiations" that President Obamas political abilities to raise income and capital gains taxes are limited. And the suffering among lower and middle income Americans from the infliction of higher payroll taxes and Obamacare taxes and penalties is so real that last week even the New York Times had to report on it.
Lets hope that Steve Forbes is right that this is not our new normal;" that we will reject politicians who are vicious with societys wealth creators. It may however have to get much worse in America before we embrace reality.