Believe it or not but most of them don’t pay taxes like normal people who have an actual job of working for someone.
They don’t get income tax the same way as we do. And are you seriously telling me that those who own companies and industries will actually physically move them? No, industry doesn’t work like that. They can sell it off and someone else will take over. So no loss there.
What that article is trying to cry is that “trickle down economics works” which is clearly bullshit.
And yet they still do pay way more taxes than the average middle-class taxpayer. In France, the top 10% pay 2/3 of the income tax. Effective total tax+contribution rate for the very top 0.001% is still over 36% on taxable income or 26% on “economic income” (their company profits)
So yeah that’s a lot of taxes that go away when those taxpayers leave. The whole “please leave DGAF” spiel surely feels good to say but the reality is that this is shooting yourself in the foot.
This is without even talking about the loss of investment, jobs and consumption.
Because people just don’t sit around doing nothing all day long. Most people tends to want to do something meaningful with their life. If there are work opportunities, they will be taken if the work is meaningful.
If rich people leave the country, it will allow lots of smaller companies to take over the market and pay taxes. They will pay less taxes, but more companies will be able to survive due to the absence of a big company own by a rich person that by design kills small businesses.
You don’t replace an experienced neurosurgeon or a star footballer like that. And even if you find such person, they’ll look at the tax rate and see that they can sell their skill in another country just as well. As for companies, they’ll set up shop abroad and ship the final product across the border.
Unless you run a country with closed borders like North Korea, your economic base and talents will “leak”.
We don’t talk about the same rich people. I talk about rich company owners (top 1% rich), you talk about liberal professions (top 10 to 5%).
For the one you talk about, they could already leave and don’t, so they prefer to stay in a country that taxes them rather than leave. Not everybody wants to leave their homeland even for more money, especially in a country like France with an overall good quality of life. I would say most people don’t.
What is important isn’t the taxe rate, but the fact that, even with high taxe rate these people still manage to have a greater income that most of the population.
Plus more taxes, means more public services, public services that also benefit star footballers (do we even need those?) and neurosurgeons. For instance if there is a better public health care system, everyone (including the rich) won’t have to pay for private health insurance, so they spend less money.
What is important isn’t the taxe rate, but the fact that, even with high taxe rate these people still manage to have a greater income that most of the population.
That’s not how people who studies and works hard to reach incomes in the 100k€’s think. Societies where people are just paid what the government think they need have existed, they all failed because ultimately money DOES motivates people quite a bit.
I talk about rich company owners (top 1% rich)
Those won’t be replaced, they’ll just move across the border (every single country around France has lower taxes) and enjoy lower taxes while still being shareholders of their French business. Except when they need to invest, they’ll likely look around their new host country because that’s where they are.
Nobody cares. If you ask someone if they want to pay more tax, they will probably always say no. And there was never a plan to dictate salaries. You can still be paid 1 million euros a year if you find someone willing to pay you that amount. But the tax man would take a bigger cut under the new laws of the NFP.
Some people say they want to leave?
First of all, no they don’t. Secondly, no they won’t. France is not Cuba, and lots of high-income Frenchmen still reside there, just like Canadians still work jobs in Canada despite the proximity to the US. They might complain, and shed crocodile tears about high-income earners leaving the country in droves, but they will stay. Like they always have. The West was most prosperous when income taxation was stupid high †. You can be skeptical about the causation effect, but that’s not the point here: there were still Americans and Frenchies in 1964, and rich ones at that. The West was still a capitalist bloc where capital concentrated, if a bit slower than today. Your argument about people leaving is a very tired one, that just won’t pass in 2024.
I won’t respond to the unhinged talking points about closing off borders or not paying foreign debt because nobody’s proposing that. You brought that to the table.
But I will say this: attractivity does matter. I’m not talking about sharks that bring little value to the real economy, but about engineers, doctors, nurses, farmers, teachers, plumbers… who all contribute something tangible to make France run every day, and require sane public infrastructure and a functioning state, which liberals have consistently been sabotaging in the West since the early 90s. And all that requires funding.
I’m not against their selfishness on moral grounds, and don’t want to punish them for being rich. Heck, I’m well-off myself. But their selfishness is against their own interest, and the interest of everybody else for that matter. If you pull the string too hard, it just breaks, and makes life miserable for everyone through things like public infrastructure/services degradation, far-right rise to power, crime…
Studies find happiness stops being related with money at some point (5000€ per month if I remember correctly). Maybe we can stop listening to rich people and just studies about happiness…
I’d say, it all comes to the society we want. Do we want to keep believing that being richer than everyone else is a good way of life or not ? If not giving back money to the community seems a good start…
Past societies failed for a large number of reasons, including money accumulation. What society do you have in mind exactly.
Taxing more rich people is also making them pay for their part in climate change, as they are the biggest contributors to it at an individual level.
Lastly it all comes to do we want or not move away from the liberal capitalism? France is the 7th economic power in the world, it should be able to switch if it wants to. And in the end it isn’t to the rich to decide that, but if they don’t want to be French anymore, they should quit as the bunch of crybabies they are (if you know what I mean :).
Believe it or not but most of them don’t pay taxes like normal people who have an actual job of working for someone.
They don’t get income tax the same way as we do. And are you seriously telling me that those who own companies and industries will actually physically move them? No, industry doesn’t work like that. They can sell it off and someone else will take over. So no loss there.
What that article is trying to cry is that “trickle down economics works” which is clearly bullshit.
And yet they still do pay way more taxes than the average middle-class taxpayer. In France, the top 10% pay 2/3 of the income tax. Effective total tax+contribution rate for the very top 0.001% is still over 36% on taxable income or 26% on “economic income” (their company profits)
So yeah that’s a lot of taxes that go away when those taxpayers leave. The whole “please leave DGAF” spiel surely feels good to say but the reality is that this is shooting yourself in the foot.
This is without even talking about the loss of investment, jobs and consumption.
If they leave, it will open more work opportunities for others. So more taxes in the end.
Why would anyone take over with the same tax issue? Those jobs will move.
Because people just don’t sit around doing nothing all day long. Most people tends to want to do something meaningful with their life. If there are work opportunities, they will be taken if the work is meaningful.
If rich people leave the country, it will allow lots of smaller companies to take over the market and pay taxes. They will pay less taxes, but more companies will be able to survive due to the absence of a big company own by a rich person that by design kills small businesses.
You don’t replace an experienced neurosurgeon or a star footballer like that. And even if you find such person, they’ll look at the tax rate and see that they can sell their skill in another country just as well. As for companies, they’ll set up shop abroad and ship the final product across the border.
Unless you run a country with closed borders like North Korea, your economic base and talents will “leak”.
We don’t talk about the same rich people. I talk about rich company owners (top 1% rich), you talk about liberal professions (top 10 to 5%).
For the one you talk about, they could already leave and don’t, so they prefer to stay in a country that taxes them rather than leave. Not everybody wants to leave their homeland even for more money, especially in a country like France with an overall good quality of life. I would say most people don’t.
What is important isn’t the taxe rate, but the fact that, even with high taxe rate these people still manage to have a greater income that most of the population.
Plus more taxes, means more public services, public services that also benefit star footballers (do we even need those?) and neurosurgeons. For instance if there is a better public health care system, everyone (including the rich) won’t have to pay for private health insurance, so they spend less money.
That’s not how people who studies and works hard to reach incomes in the 100k€’s think. Societies where people are just paid what the government think they need have existed, they all failed because ultimately money DOES motivates people quite a bit.
Those won’t be replaced, they’ll just move across the border (every single country around France has lower taxes) and enjoy lower taxes while still being shareholders of their French business. Except when they need to invest, they’ll likely look around their new host country because that’s where they are.
Won’t somebody think about the poor millionaires?
Nobody cares. If you ask someone if they want to pay more tax, they will probably always say no. And there was never a plan to dictate salaries. You can still be paid 1 million euros a year if you find someone willing to pay you that amount. But the tax man would take a bigger cut under the new laws of the NFP.
Some people say they want to leave? First of all, no they don’t. Secondly, no they won’t. France is not Cuba, and lots of high-income Frenchmen still reside there, just like Canadians still work jobs in Canada despite the proximity to the US. They might complain, and shed crocodile tears about high-income earners leaving the country in droves, but they will stay. Like they always have. The West was most prosperous when income taxation was stupid high †. You can be skeptical about the causation effect, but that’s not the point here: there were still Americans and Frenchies in 1964, and rich ones at that. The West was still a capitalist bloc where capital concentrated, if a bit slower than today. Your argument about people leaving is a very tired one, that just won’t pass in 2024.
I won’t respond to the unhinged talking points about closing off borders or not paying foreign debt because nobody’s proposing that. You brought that to the table.
But I will say this: attractivity does matter. I’m not talking about sharks that bring little value to the real economy, but about engineers, doctors, nurses, farmers, teachers, plumbers… who all contribute something tangible to make France run every day, and require sane public infrastructure and a functioning state, which liberals have consistently been sabotaging in the West since the early 90s. And all that requires funding.
I’m not against their selfishness on moral grounds, and don’t want to punish them for being rich. Heck, I’m well-off myself. But their selfishness is against their own interest, and the interest of everybody else for that matter. If you pull the string too hard, it just breaks, and makes life miserable for everyone through things like public infrastructure/services degradation, far-right rise to power, crime…
† https://www.liberation.fr/france/2009/03/17/roosevelt-n-epargnait-pas-les-riches_546501/
Studies find happiness stops being related with money at some point (5000€ per month if I remember correctly). Maybe we can stop listening to rich people and just studies about happiness…
I’d say, it all comes to the society we want. Do we want to keep believing that being richer than everyone else is a good way of life or not ? If not giving back money to the community seems a good start…
Past societies failed for a large number of reasons, including money accumulation. What society do you have in mind exactly.
Taxing more rich people is also making them pay for their part in climate change, as they are the biggest contributors to it at an individual level.
Lastly it all comes to do we want or not move away from the liberal capitalism? France is the 7th economic power in the world, it should be able to switch if it wants to. And in the end it isn’t to the rich to decide that, but if they don’t want to be French anymore, they should quit as the bunch of crybabies they are (if you know what I mean :).