Socialists Win Majority in French Parliament

Ah France! I love yoU! The French Socialist Party (social-democratic center-left reformists) won an absolute parliamentary majority yesterday. That's considered a major rebuttal for Nicholas Sarkozy's neoliberal conservative UMP. The Socialists have pledged that they "will not do any austerity", but instead will increase public spending by hiring 60,000 more teachers and cutting the retirement age from 62 to 60. (Actually, French President Hollande has already made good on the retirement age cut plans.) The difference is to be paid for by a massive increase in the tax rates of the super-rich, with millionaires to be taxed at a rate of 75%. Big oil and banks will also get new taxes and banks, so it is planned, will be required to split their traditional deposit-and-loan activities from their speculative bets in the financial markets. That is the Socialist Party's stated agenda. I'm not complaining. It's a big advance for the French left in general.

 

So I guess their approach to dealing with debt is creating more of it.

 

The French never cease to amaze with their stupidity....

 

Economic analysis:

 

With a dash of class warfare thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately for France's populist president, a 75% tax on millionaires won't solve that country's problems:

Once again, it's the middle class that is going to have to pay for the profligacy of Socialists. The class warfare rhetoric and policies are merely fig leaves concealing that fact.

BTW, not only are French millionaires talking about leaving for Belgium, they're talking about leaving for the UK, as well:

Wealthy French eye move across the Channel
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/278412e6-9538-11e1-8faf-00144feab49a.html#axzz1yAYkYRdD

 

It's a great idea if it does produce growth in the Private sector .
Cutting the retirement age was just one small part of getting elected , so we should not take much notice of it , as his claims that it could be self funding are very reasonable .
However , his plans to increase State employment are highly suspect -- that is , they only show up negatively on any balance sheet .It could take a generation before this could pay off in growth and you would never be able to show figures giving specific proof .
As regards funding good Social policies with extra Tax income from the rich -- it never works .
We will gain more as more high earning french will bring their skills here -- something we are already benefiting from .
I predict that the Hollande manifesto will be ripped up well within one year .

 

When people talk about the wealthy leaving the U.S. due to taxes, it's often overblown due to geographic factors and the fact that we still have a lot of loopholes in our tax code that the wealthy exploit.

When it comes to France, however, making the move is much easier when viewing how much EU member states often differ in personal tax rates and deductions.

It is pretty surprising that the general public in France apparently isn't anticipating something like this or they don't care.

 

I don't see how lowering the retirement age would help a situation where debts are rising. People are living longer, not shorter. He needs to raise the age instead.

 

I think this is great news!

We always need examples of what not to do. Sadly, real people will be hurt, but hopefully the object lesson they teach will prevent others from falling off the cliff.

 

This could work great if the Socialists can hire Harry, Ron, and Hermione to wave their magic wands and conjure goods and services out of thin air.

 

Then those poor put-upon elderly wouldn't be able to loaf around and play golf on the backs of young workers for the next thirty years.

 

This will not end well.

_

 

Socialists already controlled the French government - the only differences is that these guys are openly calling themselves socialists.

 

Which class warfare? I think you did not quite get the concept, there is no class warfare, because the forming anti-German coalition is far from letting their own people pay for it neither the rich nor the poor. They simply want the German tax payer to bail. There are Greek billionaries who dont pay any tax and proudly say that in the media. Guess who demands the taxes from them? Nobody!

When Wolfgang Schäuble called for a funtional system of tax authorities in Greece, it was denied and the reaction was an outcry. Nobody there wants a classwarfare, this can be too exhausting, everyone who is crying for stimulous packages just wants Germany and some smaller countries (Finland, Netherlands ...) to pay for it.

 

I doubt those French people are socialists , their leader ( and president of France) appeared in our TV two days before our elections and lectured us to vote for neoliberal parties and not for the left.
If this is socialism i am Napoleon .

 

When I talk about class warfare I am referring to populist politics and policies, not the literal meaning of the term (although you will find extremists resorting to violence, in some cases). Hollande's call to impose a 75% tax on the wealthy is part and parcel of that populist "class warfare" - it plays well with disgruntled Leftists, but it won't solve France's debt problem, just as raising taxes on the wealthy here in America isn't going to solve our debt problem. As we say here, "the money is in the middle class" - the rich don't have enough money to pay for our government's profligacy.

In the end, Hollande is effectively doing what you say he is doing - pushing things off on responsible countries such as Germany who are now paying to support irresponsible countries such as Greece. However, as we all know, Hollande is just delaying the inevitable. Eventually, the French people are going to have to face and deal with the consequences of their actions.

It's little wonder that many people think the Euro is doomed...

 

Perhaps, it's a little of both...

 

You're right about that.

Better to deal with the situation now than to try and deal with it later when things have gotten completely out of hand...

 

Is the French Socialist Party a radical socialist party, as in to say anti-capitalist? No. No it isn't. Not anymore at least. Not since the end of the Cold War. They are what we might call moderately socialist, as in to say that they're cool with a mixed economy (one that's partially capitalist and partially socialist), though they might prefer that the overall balance of it be in the public sector. This type of socialism is that which says that socialism means 50.01% public sector ownership of the economy or more. It's a liberal definition. But it's still obviously to the left of say the conservative UMP. For Americans, the French Socialist Party's victory would be analogous here to specifically members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus winning overall control of both chambers of Congress and of an aligned person (someone like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders) winning the presidency. Needless to say, such a thing would not happen in this country at this time. We are not that left wing a country as yet. But I highlight France's example to show that celebrate an example of such an accomplishment. (I view it as an accomplishment anyway, though most here (almost all American) obviously do not.)

France does have a radical socialist (i.e. anti-capitalist) electoral party as well. It's called the Left Front. It's logically kinda sorta analogous to Syriza (Radical Left Coalition) in Greece. The Left Front did not come close to winning, of course. But they are a relevant third party that often polls in the double-digits, along with the fascist Front National (analogous to Greece's Golden Dawn Party). One will not be surprised to learn that I tend to like the Left Front better than the French Socialist Party, but nonetheless the Socialist Party's victory enables them to enact many new progressive-minded economic policies (which, as I've pointed out, they've already announced and started on) that will benefit poor and middle class French people, yes at the expense of the super-rich (as is well-deserved), in addition to a more anti-militarist foreign policy. It's a good thing, in other words.

What these right wing critics we see on this thread don't understand (or don't care to understand anyway) is that people have immediate-term needs, not just long-term needs. Austerity is being increasingly rejected because it doesn't meet people's short-term needs. It just satisfies the demands of millionaire/billionaire creditors, half of whom are foreign. And frankly, it was precisely creditors who caused the recent Great Recession. They're criminals as far as I'm concerned. They deserve penalties. The French people need a functioning, growing economy that meets the needs of the masses right now, not another decade from now.

 

How does lowering the retirement age from 62 to 60 meet the needs of the masses?

 

I don't think the right wing critics here are the ones suffering from myopia, Polly - it's the French Socialists who still can't see beyond their immediate, short-term needs.

As far who are the "criminals" here, ask yourself who is responsible for the profligacy of the French government? It's not France's creditors - they never forced the French government and people to spend beyond their country's means. The creditors are merely a convenient scapegoat for the French government and people to blame for the mess that they alone are responsible for.

France has sunk so deep into the Socialist morass it has little chance of breathing life back into its moribund private sector, and Hollande's Keynesian gimmicks aren't going to address the structural problems afflicting the French economy.

 

Thank you that you explained to me, what I don't understand and for your trial to enlighten me in such a generous (or rather patronizing?) way.
Nevertheless, I hope I am allowed to retort, I never experienced that

1. politicians handle money carefully and with a sense of responsibility.
2. politicians take care of people's needs. Many left politicians want to lesson people what there needs should be, but their imaginations of peoples needs are not identical with the needs people in reality have nor do politicians want to pay for that.
3. politicians increase taxes or increase the debt as a reaction to a crisis to overcome it, they simply use a crisis to extend their access to money which they will never give up nor which they use to improve the educational system, the infrastructure or anything else. They create new casts of civil servants which depend from and are loyal to them. For that reason is is that way that the taxpayers as a whole get about 30 Eurocent back for every Euro they spend for taxes. 70 Eurocents are there for the wages of politicians, for the wages of civil servants or get lost due to wastage or inefficiency.

I do not know how you can say that the creditors are responsible for the fact that the politicians borrow money from them which they cannot pay back. What will surely happen is that France will have more difficulties to borrow new money and they will get it to worse conditions because of their new unlimited deficit spending. The age of retiring will be reduced to 60, that is a good idea. I mean some decades ago, people began to work with 15 or 16, worked until 65 and got about 70 years old. Today due to oftimes more complex and complicated jobs workers needs longer terms of education and get about 85 years old, how can that ever work out to be sufficient? This is just a move to save some voters for the next elections, he borrows the money and the next generations will have the problems, which he causes.

 

Principially right, but you overestimate the qualities of German politicians by far. They are not that irresponsible, that the markets deny them the money, but still, they are spending money they don't have. So we bail out with money we don't have ourselfes. Every Kiosk man would go to jail for participating in such a snowballsystem.

 

Socialist parties in Europe are/were all about mixed economy i didn't disputed that but socialism is like pregnancy either you are or you are not . This idiot of a president asked us to support neoliberal policies aka the dictatorship of the banks , having the face to speak like that and call yourself a socialist is a joke.
France had the great accomplishment of buying Italian and Greek debt and now they have to throw their money into the bottomless pit , their president is proposing to keep doing that.

Communist parties in Italy and France got rightfully destroyed for cooperating with the devil , the only real commie party in Europe right now is the Greek one and they unfortunately lost half their voters cause people hate the truth.

Right wing critics are mostly non Europeans that don't understand how things work, who paid for the German unification , who bankrupted Spain , how Ireland and Iceland got trashed and so on, they believe that spending more than you have is the cause of debt while it is not .
Austerity doesn't work because real economy's money ( production , services , manufacturing ) are used to bail out fictional wealth of banking derivatives and bonds ; how you are going to tax a pencil industry if the owner can not afford to buy wood ?

 

How long do you think the German government can continue this nonsense?