Another Frenchman has “gone Galt.”
First, it was France’s richest entrepreneur.
Now, it’s the nation’s most famous actor. Gerard Depardieu has officially announced – in a letter to France’s thuggish Prime Minister – that he is tired of paying 85 percent of his income to finance the vote-buying actions of France’s kleptocratic political elite.
Instead, he is going to move to Belgium (which is hardly a tax haven, but there’s an old line about how you should surround yourself with fat people if you want to look skinny).
Here are some of the amusing details from the UK-based Telegraph.
The French actor whose eccentric personality has come to symbolise a certain, old fashioned form of Gallic love for good food and the pleasures in life, also known as a “bon vivant,” said he is finished with the country, in a letter published in the Journal du Dimanche.It is addressed to Jean-Marc Ayrault, the French prime minister, who called Depardieu “pathetic” for wanting to move just over the French border to the wealthy Belgian town of Néchin, where he will evade the current Left-leaning government’s tax hikes.”I am handing over to you my passport and social security, which I have never used,” he said. …The actor asserts he has always been an upstanding citizen, deserving “respect,” and who has employed 80 people, always paid his taxes, and “never killed anybody.” He said he paid 85 per cent of his income in taxes in 2012, and over 45 years, has paid 145 million Euros – or £118 million – in taxes. …”I leave because you consider that success, creation, talent, difference, in fact, should be sanctioned,” he writes.
Gee, why is Depardieu complaining? In an act of generosity and mercy, France’s President has said he doesn’t want anybody to pay more than 80 percent of their income to the state. So if Gerard is paying 85 percent this year, he’ll get a tax cut!
Methinks that Depardieu doesn’t trust Hollande, Ayrault, and the rest of the thieves. In any event, it’s obvious – and understandable – that he resents the French government’s attack on “success, creation, talent.”
So we’re going to see the Laffer Curve in action. Depardieu has pad nearly $200 million to the French tax authorities over the past several decades. Now that the French government has tightened the screws even further, he’s going to pay them a lot less.
Maybe there’s a lesson there for Obama. But I’ve already tried to educate our taxer-in-chief about these issues, so I doubt this new evidence from France will make any difference.
P.S. Going Galt is a bit of a national pastime in France. In 1999, Laetitia Casta was chosen to be “Marianne,” the symbol of France. A couple of years later, as my friend Veronique de Rugy wrote, she decided to move to the United Kingdom to escape confiscatory taxation.
Because I’m a selfless person and a bit of an expert on tax havens, I hereby offer Laetitia my services to help with her tax planning.
I’m even willing to work 24/7 to help her protect her earnings, even if it requires an overnight stay.
No sacrifice is too great, after all, to help the cause of freedom.
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The obvious answer is to build a wall around France to stop all the rich people escaping. Duh!
I honestly can’t work out why how these progressives can be such geniuses to come up with brilliant new ideas like, “Tax the rich”, that nobody ever thought of before in the history of the world like ever, and then not see the next logical step that is obvious to every university student with a Liberal Arts degree.
Oh well, I guess it’s because they are an older generation and probably racist or something, like how those Founding Fathers were from like the Stone Age and writing with quill pens so didn’t notice the gaping flaw in their system of government that would later lead to the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Pity they were so blind and ignorant that they never even imagined that possibility, but thankfully we have people like Ayrault and Obama to fix it and finally create Social Justice.
What was a potential flight risk like Depardieu doing with a passport anyway? That’s what I want to know. There ought to be a law that makes rich people get permission from the government before they travel, or they should wear a GPS anklet or something.
Not sent from my iPhone because I don’t own an iPhone and Apple products are as gay as AIDS – particularly when they feel the need to inform the world that a message was sent from them when nobody really cares.
Well done Dan, you postscript was written as a true patriot! Also, if you are in need of some personal body guard services, while rendering your services, please keep me in mind. 😉 Have a great Christmas!
My oh my, she is gorgeous! I’d offer my services 24/7 as well.
Thanks for bringing the irony of this to my attention. I’m sure I’ll get some mileage out of this when I’m with my Francophone liberal friends.
I thought I had an active and rich fantasy life!
I love your posts. Thank you!!!
Sent from my iPhone
Get in line.
A look at the many perks of public life in France
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/12/13/france-luxury-sidebar/1765269/