Louis, I have a serious question for you, and I know it's going to sound weird, but
I want you to answer it in a serious manner. Are French millionaires more patriotic than
American millionaires?
Louis: Patriotic? I don't know, I've never met a French millionaire.
David: OK. The rich French are saying to Sarkozy please tax us more. And Sarkozy is preparing
to unveil a series of budget cuts in France, and some of his country's richest citizens
are asking him to take more of their money. And billionaire L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt
and 15 others have signed a petition urging the government to hit the wealthiest French
with this one-time tax.
Now, you'll remember, Newt Gingrich once proposed a similar one-time... or, no, I'm sorry, Donald
Trump once proposed a similar one-time tax in the U.S. in the 90s at some point, I don't
remember exactly when it was.
Louis: And in general, Warren Buffet has been saying this recently.
David: Well, we'll get to the Warren Buffet thing, absolutely, you know where I'm going.
And the French rich who are proposing this are saying it should be a reasonable, one-off,
special tax. And they say, according to the petition, we are aware that we have benefited
fully from a French model and European environment to which we are attached, and that we want
to help preserve. At a time when the public deficit and the prospect of an aggravation
of public debt threaten the future of France and Europe, it seems necessary that we contribute.
That sounds incredibly patriotic for all of the stuff that Bill O'Reilly says about the
French, remember Boycott France and Freedom Fries instead of French fries from good friend
of the show, former Congressman Bob Ney, but he knows I don't agree with him on the Freedom
Fries thing.
It sounds to me incredible that we consider the French to be less patriotic when it's
the American millionaires who are saying I earned a right to keep my money. American
billionaire Warren Buffet makes a plea for higher taxes, saying he pays the lowest tax
rate of anybody in his office. He was, of course, called unpatriotic and a socialist.
It's remarkable to me, and it really seems, for whatever reason, like these French millionaires
seem to have... I don't know what that was.
Louis: That was your computer, Dave.
David: That was weird. Oh, you know what that was? I was watching cartoons during the break.
I'm sorry.
It seems weird to me that so many are saying the American position is the unpatriotic one
on this. I just don't get it, Louis.
Louis: A little confusing, yeah. I'm going to go back and say I think the French millionaires
are more patriotic.
David: Well, there's a discussion that we have to have here, also, Louis, which is that
the anger many Americans seem to have about taxes might be different if the services that
we received from the government were as good as the ones that Europeans are receiving.
In other words, here we hear people saying I don't want the government to have any more
of my money, because they're going to waste it, they're not going to spend it right. If
the government does health care, it's not going to be good, public education, so on
and so forth.
But hold on a second, maybe the problem is that we are spending so much of the GDP and
so much of our money on wars and on defense, Louis, whereas other countries are more intelligently
distributing that money to actual services. So therefore, if you live in France, for example,
and you know that there's a great government health care system and you've got education
that is going to be taken care of and you know social services are going to be provided,
you don't have this angry, visceral reaction when you hear about taxes that many in the
United States now do.
Louis: You really think that's what's going on here? You think if we had better spending,
millionaires would be more likely to say hey, take more of my money?
David: I'm not just saying better spending, but I'm saying if all along the context were
different, and it was one where it was clear that the government is looking to provide
basic, fundamental services to people in a positive way, as opposed to this constant
fear, in part created by politicians, in part created by reality, in part created by just
general hysteria, that any money you give to the government is wasted and not used properly,
sure, everything would be different. I mean, don't you agree on this, Natan, that if we
actually considered the system in Europe, if people in the U.S. had more confidence,
the perception of so-called "evil" taxes would be very, very different?
Natan Pakman: Absolutely.
Louis: That's going to be a hard mentality to break out of, when almost every politician
in some shape or form is constantly slamming government spending.
David: You're right. I don't know if it's possible.
Natan: But I think there's another side to this. I mean, I think that a big reason why
people feel this way is because we have one political party, namely the Republicans, that
run for office on an anti-government... on anti-government rhetoric.
David: Anti-tax rhetoric, also.
Natan: Anti-tax, but anti-government. They claim that they want government to do less,
and yet they're running for government. I mean, most of these European countries, it's
not the case that one of the parties thinks that the government shouldn't do certain basic
things. The thing is, in the U.S., you know, conservatives think that the government should
do very few things, like, for example, you know, the military.
David: Sure. No, it's a completely different context.
Louis: We've seen the cuts that the Republicans want to make, and the Democrats can't go in
and say here are things we want to add. You just can't do it.
David: They can, but you know how it's all pork, it's all... it's too much spending,
it's the wrong spending, it's socialist spending.
Louis: Right.
David: Yeah, it's a hard narrative to break out of.
Let's take a break. Make sure to like The David Pakman Show on Facebook, www.Facebook.com/DavidPakmanShow.
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more coming up.
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