Pave: La France Numéro Un !

Le jour 351 de Sarko

They were asking me to pay taxes on money I didn't have. I had no choice but to leave the country.

Denis Payre,
French entrepreneur and tax exile,
explaining one solution to the French wealth tax
PARIS July 16, 2006 (WaPo)

It's an old saw -- and one we subscribe to -- that governments do only two things well: wage war and tax. In France's case, the government only manages to do one thing well.

2008 TAX MISERY & REFORM INDEX

April 7, 2008 (Forbes) - The misery score is the sum of the taxes shown in the colored bars, at the highest marginal percentage in each locale. It is our best proxy for evaluating whether policy attracts or repels capital and talent. The countries at the top of the chart impose the harshest taxes while those at the bottom are the most tax friendly. The Reform column reflects a reduction in misery (a negative number highlighted in red) or an increase in misery since we began tracking.

STILL NUMBER ONE!
"France Reigned Supreme As The Most-Taxed Nation
[Out Of The 66 Indexed] With A Misery Score Of 166.8
For The Past Two Years."*

[Hat tip: Hervé]

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* France has scored 166.8 for three consecutive years by our count, 2006-2008. France has held the number one position on the Forbes Tax Misery Index every year since its inception in 2000: 2000 (193.1), 2001 (181.6), 2002 (181.2), 2003 (179.4), 2004 (174.8), 2005 (174.8), 2006 (166.8), 2007 (166.8), and 2008 (166.8).

PFFT (What is this?): Doing one thing well 5 | Rayonnement français 0