Why do Republicans overlook business greed?

[MaxGrit]

French president changes tack to revive economy

The eurozone's second biggest economy barely grew in 2013, acting as a drag on the region's wider recovery from its longest recession on record. French unemployment, at just under 11%, is higher than a year ago.

Elected in 2012 on a promise to put job creation before austerity, the Socialist president has been tinkering with reforms for over a year. But his early preference for raising taxes rather than cutting spending to bring government borrowing under control dismayed entrepreneurs, and modest labor market reforms have failed to persuade companies to invest.

Hollande has been urged by his European partners and international institutions to be bolder with his economic reforms. And ratings agency S&P downgraded France in November, concerned that the government will be unable to restore the economy's competitiveness.

The president took a different tone Tuesday, emphasizing the need to reduce the burden of payroll contributions, taxes and regulation to restore growth.

"We will not be able to reduce unemployment unless there is job creation by companies," he said.

"More and more, the future French economic policy will look like that of the previous conservative majority," said Dominique Barbet of BNP Paribas.

France: Economy & Presidency - Forbes

There has been no incentive for creative entrepreneurs to set up a business when they are threatened with a tax of 68% on any profits they may make if their venture were sold to another company. Business are bullied as left wing dogma has repeatedly failed to recognise that both French and international corporations have to compete on a global stage and therefore cost control is an essential tool of the trade. Holding key management hostage (Goodyear ) when a plant is threatened with closure does nothing to attract new incoming capital.


If one indexed the DAX and the CAC 40 at the end of 2011 as starting on level terms i.e. 1:1, then the fatigue of France is shown in that at the end of last week the DAX:CAC ratio had risen to 2.23:1…there is little more that needs to be said.


If the President, this afternoon marks a shift away from his socialist, anti-business agenda then surely the markets must recognise it as the acceptance that the manifesto that he ran for office on has crumbled and is to be judged a failure. Why now, when in his 20th month in Élysée Palace has it dawned on him that socialism is a fine idea until one has to ask who will pay. Clearly it is the French people that paying for this “Grande folie”.

 

[The Rabbi]

Gee I guess promisng to raise taxes on the rich and big corporations and give more money to welfare class people just isnt the economic success that it is politically. Now if Obama would learn that lesson. But he's stupid. He's less clever than a French socialist.

 

[MaxGrit]

Gee I guess promisng to raise taxes on the rich and big corporations and give more money to welfare class people just isnt the economic success that it is politically. Now if Obama would learn that lesson. But he's stupid. He's less clever than a French socialist.

Down and out: the French flee a nation in despair - Telegraph

It wasn’t fated to happen. “By 2000,” says Jacques Régniez, “French multinationals had achieved a very high level of competitiveness. Having committed to the strong franc, in the run-up to the euro they were forced to become lean and efficient. They rationalised production, and French workers became some of the most productive in the world.” French utilities, insurers, aerospace makers and luxury-goods conglomerates were up there with the best. If you wanted the best nuclear plant, crocodile handbag, commercial aircraft, high-speed train, you bought French.

What went wrong, says Régniez, was a bill passed by the then socialist Lionel Jospin government reducing the working week to 35 hours. “Where our competitors, especially the Germans, saw the need to keep prices and costs down, France spent money she couldn’t afford.” The entire system, he explains, tilted fatally to the side of salary hikes, perks and a lowering of retirement age, in the face of every observable demographic trend.

Investment slowed down in the private sector, and almost stopped in the public one. “Each year, France has missed out on four GDP points of capital investment. By now, after a decade-and-a-half, we are not only lagging behind, it’s not certain we can make up for it. It would cost a 4.5 per cent hike in VAT, and other significant hikes in payroll taxes. That, quite simply, is not realistic.”

Even France’s vaunted infrastructures – those trains, roads, telecoms cables, the once ultra-performing electrical grid, the nuclear plants, the delayed 4G network – have taken a severe hit.

A French businessman who moved to London last year and asked not to be quoted by name, “because my tax audit would be even more retaliatory than what I’m currently being subjected to”, compares July’s Brétigny train crash, France’s worst rail disaster in a quarter of a century that killed six and injured 100, to the Paddington and Potters Bar derailments. “The rolling stock is ageing, the tracks are in a constant state of disrepair, even the TGVs now have regular delays because of catenary failure.”

Despite disputing allegations of negligence, SNCF have said they will reinforce maintenance “without waiting for the conclusions of the inquiry”. Criticisms have also been made that vast sums went on salaries, benefits and pensions.

...

“This should be a warning to other countries, like Britain – it’s all very well punishing a conservative politician you’re dissatisfied with by voting for a maverick, Le Pen here, Farage there. But it gets the likes of Hollande elected. Think well: is ours the kind of future you want for your country?”

 

[Iceweasel]

The question is wrong. Business = private enterprise. The better question is why do liberals focus on others' earnings so much? A government that can regulate private profit making or what constitutes "greed" is a government to be feared and overthrown.
And any government that is controlled by business is to be feared and overthrown.