Hollande is not the right man

FRANCOIS Hollande’s 75% tax may appeal to the “politics of envy” but it would raise very modest or negligible revenue.

To achieve a balanced budget, we need much less government spending, as one cannot tax our way to prosperity – it is ludicrous.

Does fairness apply only to those at the bottom end of the income ladder? The top one percent of France’s earners account for nearly 30% of all income tax receipts. How much must they pay in order to pass Hollande’s “decency” test? In the next few years, France’s national income will grow more slowly than the debt. This is due in part to onerous social security regulations which are slowing employment. Reform is urgent. Since 1980, France has turned into a nation of “hand-out” addicts with the merit of rewarding idleness.

The French state is spending far too much of our income. Much of what it spends is wasted and it raises money in a damaging way, namely social security regulations and income tax. Such a structure is hardly clever when you want to encourage employment.

Hollande has no practical ideas to reduce the layers of civil servants from seven million to six million, reduce pensions to civil servants, tackle the sovereign debt,and so on. He is not the right man at this time of crisis.

Ian HILL, Brive-la-Gaillarde