Multiple parties are jockeying for position in the aftermath of France's seismic snap election. The leftist New Popular Front (NPF) insists its ideas should be implemented.

Multiple parties are jockeying for position in the aftermath of France’s seismic snap election. The leftist New Popular Front (NPF) insists its ideas should be implemented.

France’s left wing New Popular Front (NPF) - now the largest group in parliament - has called for a prime minister who will implement its ideas including a new wealth tax and petrol price controls.

The leftist alliance secured the most seats in the recent French elections but fell short of the 289 needed for a majority in the National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament.

President Emmanuel Macron’s Together bloc came in second and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party finished third.

France’s parties are now jockeying for position and it’s unclear exactly how things will shake out, but the NPF has insisted it will implement its radical set of ideas.

  • miridius@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1412·
    4 months ago

    Can we get a non Murdoch source on this?

    This is not a tax on the rich, it’s a tax on the upper middle class.

      • e$tGyr#J2pqM8v@feddit.nlEnglish
        91·
        4 months ago

        Policies favoring the rich are always sold as favoring the middle class. If middle class means the rich, then upper middle class means the filthy rich.

      • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        4 months ago

        People who make money by investing. In the USA, the top 1% earn their income through investments, usually the purchase and sale of stocks. These are not taxed the same as regular income because they made the argument that you can’t really tax unrealized gains on investments that are sold, and it takes a while for the gains to actually materialize. Also, they tend to store their money, their liquid assets, in countries with looser tax laws, called tax havens. Much of their net worths are tied up in investments. Businesses, homes, art, classic vehicles, precious metals futures, oil futures, boats, etc.

        Assessing the value of all of that is a chore, and they also pay lobbyists to keep the IRS defanged so that they don’t have the resources needed to go after the 1%. And don’t get me started on how much more speculative the stock market has become. Investors buy stocks, not on the expected dividends they’ll receive as a share of the profits of the business, but on their ability to flip the stock and sell it at a higher price to another investor, who is only buying because they anticipate flipping the stock. It’s like if a whole neighborhood of single family homes gets bought up buy a few house flippers, who make renovations, then put the houses up for sale, and sell to new flippers, who are only buying so they can make further renovations, increasing the value of the property again to sell to yet another flipper, ad nauseam.

          • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.worldEnglish
            21·
            4 months ago

            Your point? The USA became the model for the western world in many respects after WW2, I would not be surprised if French billionaires make their money the same way American billionaires do.

            • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              4·
              4 months ago

              It’s just an extremely usaian thing to do. Mega cringe to see constantly.

              400k euro is still like the peak of wealth. Nobody is earning that much reasonably, even if there are even wealthier people doing shenanigans.

      • Don_alForno@feddit.deEnglish
        2·
        4 months ago

        People who don’t pay income tax in the first place because they are so rich they don’t need a normal income. Those need to be taxed more.

      • miridius@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        4 months ago

        Rich is when you have little to no taxable income, and your wealth is mostly unrealised captial gains that you borrow against to fund your lifestyle, and you use various other strategies to offset whatever salary you do get with expenses or make it otherwise untaxable

    • trolololol@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      4 months ago

      I laugh so hard because the headline for me is great news, only now I realized it’s sky news so it’s supposed to be scaring people

    • noevidenz@infosec.pubEnglish
      8·
      4 months ago

      Your instinct to search for a non-Murdoch source is correct, as they are trying to paint the entire NFP as holding the same positions as their most extreme member.

      There is little to no chance of Melenchon becoming Prime Minister or having any ability to enact this tax.

      However a marginal tax rate of 90% on income over €400k is well above the upper-middle class and would apply to only the wealthiest families, most of whom would still have other avenues to minimise the tax they actually pay.

    • englislanguage@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      7·
      4 months ago

      400’000€ yearly income is not middle class. It is roughly the top 1%. Are you maybe mistaking property for income?

      I would have preferred taxing on property instead of income, but as long as interests and profits and other benefits are part of income, it sounds reasonable to me.