Having lived in France during some of my formative years, I can relate to the culture and society, as if it were almost my own. But, I am not French and have never partook in their political process beyond a couple ‘manif’ against the borderline extremist conservative party, which is the “front national” aka “le FN”. Being abroad makes it a bit more difficult to closely follow the presidential elections; however I was able to watch a few debates between Sarkozy and Hollande.
Charismatically speaking, Sarkozy seemed tired, exhausted in his attempts to lead France and manage his own life. Hollande on the other hand had energy, appeared constructive, critical, but only for the sake of creating more value. At the same time Hollande was also discussing a few crazy policies that people doubted. One of these was his taxation for the “extremely” wealthy and now calling it a symbolic measure.
This is dangerous, extremely dangerous. The taste of capitalism is a difficult one to rinse from one’s pallet. On the positive side, capitalism encourages the belief that hard work matters and that it should be rewarded. While such policy as the 75% tax on income above 1 million euros is intended to reduce the income back and further support the bottom of society, the threat of stifling wealth creation is too great and not only reduces the pie for the extremely wealthy but also for the rest of society as a whole.
What if Hollande focused instead on creating more young entrepreneurs that were able to create income for themselves, jobs for themselves and even pay reasonable taxes to the government for all the social benefits France strives to offer. Too many young French people are leaving France with broken dreams and see the possibilities of what they envision for themselves in another geographic paradise. We live in an internet day and age, anyone can turn the world upside down – that is if they are given the opportunity to do so.
The French President needs to think in more creation driven terms as opposed to the restrictive ones he seems to be pursuing wholeheartedly.