The French pay less taxes than we do?

What! Socialist France, less taxes? Take a look:

Is France Doing Better Than The U.S.?

Why does it appear France is bouncing back more quickly from the recession than the United States?

France has long been known for having an economy that suffered from too much government interference, too-high taxes and destructive union activity. Yet it grew 1.4 percent in the second quarter of 2009, while the U.S. economy continued to decline.

The United States and Britain have had the largest "stimulus" programs of the major economies (as measured by increases in government spending and deficits relative to gross domestic product) and yet they are not moving toward recovery as rapidly as most other countries that had far smaller stimulus programs or none.

[...]

... France has sharply reduced its corporate income-tax rate so it is lower than the U.S. rate. France also has been reducing its individual tax rates so that many Frenchmen now pay a lower maximum tax rate than do the taxpayers of New York, California and many other states.

If the tax-rate increases proposed by the Obama administration and the Democrat Congress are passed into law, all upper-income Americans will be paying higher personal tax rates than the wealthy in France.

[See the table in article for a tax and finances comparison]

However - the economic reforms in France have not been sufficient to keep large numbers of wealthy French from moving much of their savings and investment to other countries.

Rather than make their tax laws sufficiently competitive to keep their capital at home, the French have been on a crusade to force other countries to raise their tax rates and engage in widespread tax information sharing.

These bad habits have been picked up by many in the U.S. Congress as it pushes for legislation to discourage the free movement of capital along with the destruction of financial privacy. The result will be slower economic growth throughout the world, less job creation and more economic misery. [...]

As the French make changes in their own economy, perhaps we should emulate their successes, rather than their failures. The article goes on to say that other countries offer more attractive models, but that France is continuing to work on theirs to make it more workable and attractive, thanks to French think-tanks like the Institute for Economic Studies-Europe and other groups too.

There really is a lot be learned here from the French. Is our government paying attention? Or are they too busy maintaining and orchestrating a crisis, as an "opportunity" to further their agenda of expanded government control and interference in our lives?

The energy policies of France, and the protection they afforded France from the effects of the recession, are also worth noting.

     

Oy! The French are expressing doubts already

From the Brussel's Journal, an excerpt from L'EXPRESS: Saint Barack

[...] Rapidly, the world will learn that this man was elected to defend the interests of his country above all. It's fine if, for now, the universal order of the day is that what is good for America is good for the world. It remains to be seen how long this illusion will last.

Nothing like that European optimism, is there? Well the French can always work on electing minorities in their own country. Ditto the rest of Europe.

Follow the link if you want to see the nasty cover L'EXPRESS planned to use if McCain won. There is no pleasing some people.
     

France regulates country music dancing

What is big government and taxes for, if not regulating and financing dangerous activities like Line Dancing to American Country Music:

Oui-Ha! France brings line dancing craze under state control

[...] The French administration has moved to create an official country dancing diploma as part of a drive to regulate the fad. Authorised instructors who have been on publicly funded training courses will be put in charge of line dancing lessons and balls.

The rules, which come into force next year, come after the rapid spread of country and western in France, where an estimated 100,000 people line dance several times a week. Jean Chauveau, the chairman of the country section of the French Dance Federation, said: “It's growing at a crazy rate. There are thousands of clubs and more are springing up all the time.”

He said the French shunned the square dancing that is popular among country and western fans in the United States because it involved physical contact. “They don't want to take anyone by the hand or anything like that,” he said. But they were passionate about line dancing, where participants follow the steps without touching anyone else. “I think this corresponds to the individualism of our times,” Mr Chauveau said.

[...]

Mr Chauveau said the trend illustrated France's “complicated and ambiguous” relationship with the United States. “We love American magic and the American dream,” he said. “But we hate Americans when we confront the hard reality of their behaviour throughout the world. We go for the cowboy hats but not George Bush.”

In a peculiarly Gallic approach to the phenomenon, French civil servants say line dancing should be submitted to the same rules as sports such as football and rugby. This means imposing training courses for line dancing teachers and a state-approved diploma for anyone who wants to give lessons or run clubs.

Amateur instructors will have to take 200 hours of training under the new rules. Professionals will get 600 hours, including such subjects as line dancing techniques, “the mechanics of the human body” and the English (or at least Texan) language. They will also learn how to teach line dancing to the elderly.

The cost of the courses, about €2,000 (£1,570) for the professionals and €500 for the amateurs, will be largely met by taxpayers. Mr Chauveau said the regulations highlighted the French state's obsessive desire to organise all public activity. [...]

Government controlled line dancing, an expression of the "individualism of our times"? Those funny European ideas. It just makes me think of that expression, "Big hat, no cattle".

But just when you think you've found another good reason to despise the French, they go and do something like this:

French Families Honor US Fallen At Normandy

I can get annoyed by the things they say and do sometimes, but things like the above link make it hard to stay mad at them. How can it be possible to remain continuously vexed with a country whose citizens donate their time to something like Les Fleurs de la Mémoire? Our relationship with France has always been... complicated. And it probably always will be. It's part of what makes the French French.
     

Le Secret de Brokeback Mountain

Here is a funny commercial for French Pay TV Canal+. It's about the movie "Brokeback Mountain" (In France it's called "The Secret of Brokeback Mountain"). One lady describes the movie to her friend, who tries to imagine it in her mind. Misunderstanding ensues. It's 52 seconds with English subtitles.

The same company has another commercial for "March of the Penguins" which is also hilarious:

March of the Emperor