and yes, 75% tax is hurting France as it has a loophole : Any french can live outside France and avoid that 75% tax...

The 75% tax will only last two years (source : french gov) to help with the debt crisis. The official name is not "tax", but "exceptional contribution".
It will only be for salaries above 1,000,000€ / year.
Understand this well :
- The 1st million will NOT be taxed at 75%. Only the income above 1 million will be.
- it's a tax only for salaries income. Other types of income will NOT be taxed at 75% (rents, stocks, stock-options, lawyers or artists' fees (because they're not strictly salaries), etc). Less than 1000 people will be concerned (source french gov), so the tax is only expected to bring in 210m€.
It has been judged unconstitutional by the Constitutional Council (because it didn't take into account how much the spouse earns). So other modifications have been made.
It will be paid by the employer, not by the employee, as planned originally.

Hollande made this promise when he was afraid he would lose the election, it was a last minute idea. He was accused of leaning too much to the center, so he needed a symbol making him look truely left.
If it only brings 210m€, it will indeed be just a symbol.

See. . .see, he will lose in four years. Let's stop working with him.

Such drivel!

... the day after the 2012 elections.


Its not a right/left thing.

good guess.

Or maybe he is not spreading that extra money around where the voters can feel and see it? I doubt very many voters fall into the 75% tax bracket, so maybe they should give him more time and leeway.

I don't advocate anyone pay a 75% tax, even the rich. As a matter of principle, I don't think anyone should pay more than half their income, with the rich paying the most of course.

From 1954 to 1963 the top federal income tax rate was 91% then it dropped to 77%.

America was running just fine with such high tax brackets. High tax rates force the uber rich to invest instead of taking money out of businesses and hiding the money in offshore accounts.

Taxes were far higher on top incomes in the three decades after World War II than they've been since. And the distribution of income was far more equal. Yet the American economy grew faster in those years than it's grown since tax rates were slashed in 1981.

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/commentary/taxing-rich-good-economy

High, high high tax rates for the uber rich makes for an equal and well funded country.

The tax code was filled with loopholes that don't exist now. The reason the economy grew at faster rates in the thee decades after WW II is we were the only man left standing. Every other economy in the world was in shambles. We now have competitors everywhere who an do what we can. Playing with tax rates will not change that reality.

Four years ago was the first year of Obama's first term.

when I consult my Magic 8 Ball.

I also predict that my result is just as valid as theirs.

This poll may suggest people are not happy with the situation. Anything else is pure BS.

This is a ridiculous poll.

Of course, the economic crisis results in impatience with almost any incumbent.

now if this were June 2017. and the election was Oct. 2017
then you might have something. but now, LOL

Maybe Hollande can arrange for Ted Cruz to campaign for his opponents.

He's in a temporary PR doghouse this week thanks to a setback in Mali, Hollande's first foreign policy triumph until two RFI reporters were kidnapped and shot by mysterious Islamic terrists in Northern Mali last week. Evidently it's one of those deals where no group steps forward and there's no clear terrist goal other than making a prominent Dem or Socialist look weak. Coincidentally, Sarkozy and trophy wife Bruni are all over French media lately, hmm.

p.s. Manuel Valls lost to Hollande in the 2012 primary, then got Hollande to appoint him interior minister, where he's shown himself to be something close to a RW nutjob, going after Roma and Basques like they haven't lived in France for as least as long as he has.