France: The End Of The Road - For Me? |
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File under France Opinion
Author: Mike Werner
Location: Normandy, France
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You may have heard it on the news, but France has a new government, and it doesn't look good. The country has gone from the right to the left, i.e., a socialist government.
The current president, Nicolas Sarkozy , had been trying hard to get rid of the debt left to him by previous socialist governments, and with the state of the world economic crisis, was having problems. This made him very unpopular, but that is always what happens when someone tries to solve difficult problems; they must make hard decisions and unless you run a dictatorship, the people will not like it. Unfortunately, he did not like motorcycles and their riders much either, so that was another strike against him, albeit a minor one for the majority of the population.
The new president of France, Francois Hollande , is a true-blooded socialist. Despite the country having an enormous debt, he has already promised to hire an extra 65,000 civil servants, to tax anyone earning over €1 million with a whopping 75% tax rate, to bring back the minimum retirement age from 62 to 60 (Sarkozy increased it since the retirement funds are going bankrupt), and to increase minimum wages. All that while there is no money.
So how is he going to do this? Unless he is Jesus, and can split bread in more and more parts, the only way is to increase further taxes, both revenue and corporate. He has also stated that he plans to un-hire, un-appoint, all appointments made by the previous government. Which means less and less companies will be coming to France. It'll mean an exodus of wealthy people and companies that are making profits. But at least, he has said he will not hinder immigrations, so we'll be getting plenty of folks from countries worse off than France. And then things will go belly-up and Greece will look like a well-run country compared to France.
But at least there's a positive side to this event; Francois Hollande is a biker; he rides scooters, and he does it a lot (just look at the photo at his left hand fingers, the mark of a veteran rider).
So at least, he knows what it is means being on two wheels, so hopefully he'll be more clement towards us.
So apart from the motorcycle side of things, economical and political things do not look good. The French have voted with their hearts, not their brains, and they'll pay for it later.
Anyone want to hire a motorcycle journalist who wants to live outside of France. Any honest proposition will be considered with care. Only places I'll not go and live is Nigeria (I lived there, don't want to again), Syria (for the time being) and possibly Sudan.
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