The prevailing view that socialists are hypocrites who are incapable of rational thought, or that they are incapable of thinking outside the confines of their ideology, is justified by the rank stupidity and hypocrisy of the French government and its hangers on.
Socialists have always portrayed themselves as morally superior to everyone else. They believe that their ideology is so pure it might have come down from Heaven on tablets of stone instead of from the pen of an idle, grey bearded layabout who sponged off a wealthy industrialist who himself claimed to be a communist.
When Francois Hollande was elected to the French presidency on a socialist platform, which included a promise to squeeze the fat cats and hit 'the rich' with a 75% wealth tax, those people who live in the real world knew it would unravel sooner rather than later.
Like all socialists Hollande is an unreconstructed hypocrite who is quoted as saying that "I don't like the rich" but employed one of France's richest men, publisher Jean-Jacques Augier, to run his election campaign.
Hollande also made the money loving Jerome Cahuzac his Budget Minister, with the added brief of launching a fight against tax evasion.
If the predictable exodus of French talent, including the high profile departure of Gerard Depardeau, wasn't enough of an embarrassment, then Hollande must have been looking for the earth to swallow him up when his two big appointments were exposed as tax evaders.
To the sound of mirth and laughter around the world, French socialist purity took a knock when it was revealed that Jean-Jacques Augier stashes his loot in the Cayman Islands.
Perhaps he was inadvertently caught up in Budget Minister Cahuzac's fight against against tax evasion.
If this treachery to the socialist cause came as a shock to President Hollande, then the revelation that his warrior against tax evasion had a stash of loot in a Swiss bank account must have given him serious palpitations.
When a politician like Cahuzac dismisses rumours of tax evasion, fraud and money laundering as "crazy", the warning lights should flash and the bells should start ringing. Hollande ignored them and paid the price.
The mirth and laughter returned as Hollande was forced into a humiliating climb down and he is now promising a new law aimed at controlling the wealth of his own supposedly socialist Ministers and making the information public.
Despite all the evidence from history that it doesn't work, Hollande's plan for rescuing France's dire economic free fall was vintage socialist stupidity. Besides the 75% tax on 'the rich' there were new taxes on bank profits, dividends, bonuses, stock options, 'big business', energy companies, wealthy households etc. By combining some of these new taxes, it has been calculated that some net worth individuals would be paying a marginal rate of 90.5%.
For those who can remember, this is no different to Great Britain during the Labour Party years of Harold Wilson and Denis Healy. These two socialist geniuses had similar tax rates which helped bankrupt the economy, as a result they had to go grovelling to the International Monetary Fund for a loan.
To anyone other than a socialist, the results of Hollande's policies were predictable, the exodus of talent picked up pace, tax revenue went through the floor and the economy slumped even further into the abyss. Unemployment is at a record 11% with under 25's at 26%. France's debt has surpassed 90% of GDP and rising.
In addition to its disastrous effect on the economy, the French Courts ruled his 75% tax unconstitutional. One would think that Hollande would use this as an excuse for a rethink but no, he is a socialist after all so he must be right. He is now planning a hit on wealthy football players.
At this point it must be acknowledged that Hollande is beyond help, he is incapable of thinking outside of his perverted ideology. The French people who voted him President because of his anti rich rhetoric will now pay the price with a wrecked economy and high unemployment for a generation.
The economic debacle playing out in France should be a warning to the British people across the Channel. On his accession to the French Presidency, Hollande suddenly found himself with a new Best Friend Forever in fellow socialist Red Ed Miliband.
Hollande and Miliband, being soul mates, are going to present an alternative to the current policy of austerity, in order to get economic growth moving in European Union La La Land. They plan to tackle borrowing, spending and ruinous national debts by borrowing and spending even more. This plan is so simple its bordering on genius. Why anyone didn't think of this before is a total mystery.
After the disastrous Wilson/Callaghan/Healy Labour governments of the 60's and 70's one is entitled to think that subsequent governments would learn that socialism doesn't work. Thirteen years of Red Ed's Labour government borrowing and spending the British economy into bankruptcy proved everyone wrong.
Red Ed's enthusiasm for socialism has not been dimmed one iota. Taxing, borrowing and spending is the only way he knows, he is incapable of any other rational thought despite the all the examples of socialism's failure littered throughout history.
Worryingly, Red Ed is currently ahead in the polls and if an election is held in the near future he will most likely be 'Great' Britain's version of Francois Hollande. Heaven help us all.
An article for the Guardian last year by none other than that pillar of Labour Party integrity, Denis McShane, lays the relationship between Hollande and Miliband open for all to see.
Read this and despair.
Hollande really is clueless his policies are smiliar to trying to rememedy a headache by bashing your head against a wall. Everybody saw this coming apart from the French I remember reading the issue of the economist last year where their cover called him the most dangerous mnan in Europe and rightly so I remember the article said that the state accounts for 56% of French GDP! That's an indictment of how useless Sarkozy and the centre right in France have been for decades unlike in Britain their main centre right party has inclination towards privatisation or being pro markets. I mean we complain in this country that the Tories have moved way to the left which they have but in France the UMP in government were probably more left wing on the economy than New Labour now that's a scary thought.The French are screwed they only have themsleves to blame for trying to always live la belle vie.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting. When I listened to Hollande's election sales pitch, I knew then he was going to be a disaster. All this tax,spend, Keyensian stimilus has been tried umpteen times before and its never worked.
DeletePeople like Hollande, Miliband, Balls and now Obama can't see past their ideology.
You make an interesting point about the centre right parties moving left.
I am thinking that left, right categories are becoming obselete with so called conservative administrations following policies one would normally associate with socialism.
This is the main reason UKIP are attracting support Nigel Farage hits it on the head when he says that we now have 3 social democratic parties. The thing with Keynes is when he published his theory the world economy and the UK economy was very different we didn't have globalisation Keynes said stimulus would work in an isolated economy. Public sector spending was around 30% of GDP in the UK not nearly half as it is now. He never advocated taxing the rich at at 50% at all he said we should cut taxes in a recession and increase public spending ( that doesn't make sense in are situation as it is already half of our output ). But most importantly Keynes said you should run a surplus in times of growth so when the inevitable downturn came you could run a deficit these lefties love to forget that. If he were alive today he would condemn the left for not holding to what he advocated. I disagree with him on public spending helping the economy. Milton Friedman said it was a great tragedy that he never lived to see his theory put into practice because he probably would have condemned it.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, what politicians are doing today is not what Keynes intended. They have taken his basic theory and perverted it for their own ends. In simple terms they have used Keynes theory as an excuse to take over the half of the economy. If they get their way they will take the other half as well.
DeleteI think Hollande, Miliband, Balls et al. should tell us what is the upper limit for public spending. Is it 50%, 60% 70% or 100% of GDP?
I saw one report that claimed that between 17% and 23% is maximum for an efficient economy.
Milliballs are just clueless they don't understand the economy they think the state is the economy.
ReplyDeleteYou are 100% correct. They really do believe the state is everything. They can't comprehend that there are alternatives to their out of date ideology.
DeleteWhy anyone would listen to Keynes is beyond me. He quoted ( in 1927)
ReplyDelete"we will not have any more crashes in our time"
That aside, he was a raving paedo.
Paris Claims
I don't think anyone believes this Keynesian crap anymore. They just use it as an excuse to control the economy and therefore the people as a consequence.
DeleteI checked him out and got a shock, the guy was sick in the head, a depraved pervert of the lowest kind.